Youth participation in Spanish urban periphery: its concept, spheres and conditioning factors

Abstract

This article examines the community participation among 297 young people (from 12 to 16 years) from disadvantaged urban contexts. Our goal is to provide some reflections to review the model of youth participation in these communities from a bio-ecological framework, and a mesosystem perspective. Thus, our analysis focuses on the interactions between young people and their families with schools and the neighbourhood, to highlight the concept, spheres and conditioning (risk and protective) factors of youth participation. For this purpose, a mixed method with a triangulation design was carried out, combining complementary techniques: a study survey with 297 youngsters and 3 focus groups. The main conclusions that arise from our results are: i) the need to promote policy of presence and more experiential, meaningful, functional initiatives based on the commitment to social improvement through community participation; ii) the need to emphasize neighbourhoods and schools as contexts and actors for community action and the promotion of citizen participation among youth; and, iii) to rethink online participation facing the challenge of bringing critical awareness and democratic and civic values to youth digital competences.