Schlagwort: Youth participation

Evidence Based Youth Policy Seminar

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The last week I was in a small village near Vilnius (Lithuania) to discuss evidence based youth policy with a group of young people and youth workers from all other Europe organised by POLITIKOS TYRIM? IR ANALIZ?S INSTITUTAS from Lithuania.

It is always great to get into contact with many new people on youth policy from all across europe. I shared a little bit about the German system of youth policy and how it is set and and done. But even more intresting I lerned a lot from other countries and their practices. For example a current hot toppic in the UK are the huge cuts done in the health and welfare system.

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The core idea of the project was to bring together youth researchers and practitioners from different European countries to develop set of tools that can be used Europe-wide to analyse youth (policy) situation. We shared a lot of research tools and information about what youth policy is. We talked about methodology and about the current practices.  „Evidence Based Youth Policy Seminar“ weiterlesen

One week after Armenia – some thoughts

The airplane landed at 3 in the night at Yerevan airport’s surprisingly modern airport. Modern and well built, but a little faceless as all modern airport buildings are. Our first encounter with real Armenia did we have immediately when I discovered a hedgehog living in the trunk of my taxi. These taxis became a daily experience of our trip as we rode on the backseat of old Ladas, without seatbelts, hoping our trip would go well.

Yerevan downtown is a modern, almost west European city and you could mistakenly believe you are somewhere southern France, but when you come into the outskirts you notice this is a poor country and when you see the countryside you think even the Banlieu is rich. Whilst Yerevan is full of white and black SUV and large Mercedes limousines on the countryside you can see people residing in what are mere shacks. Houses that are little more then a tin roof and some bare walls.

One of the youth centers we visited was opposite from the state security service so we were not allowed to take any pictures, as not to endanger the security of the Republic of Armenia, but I guess they have little trouble with anti social behavior of youth around the place. „One week after Armenia – some thoughts“ weiterlesen

Day 3

This morning we had a very interesting talk and discussion about environmental campaigning and issues in Armenia by one of its foremost advocates. Later we went to KASA foundation again to get some more insights into their work and also visit a theatre group, who do a lot of forum theatre to rise awareness of social, political and gender issues.

It is late and I tomorrow we will go to see Armenias second city Gymri. However it was good to have some time off in the afternoon to get to see a little bit of the city as well.

 

im Prinzip ja, aber

On the photo you see Andreas Bender, chairman of the umbrella organisation presenting its work and structure.

The first two days of our study visit to Armenia are over, its long past midnight as a write these lines, but I promised to report. We had two very interesting meetings today, one with the Armenian Ministry on Youth and Sports the other one with representatives of the Youth NGO, both of them were on the topic of youth in Armenia.

The Ministry for Youth explains the youth report

Youth research and statistical data is not widely available in Armenia, as there have been only two reports on the situation of young people. Which are defined differently from how we do it here in western Europe, as people between the age of 18 – 30. And their views on issues like genderrelations, marriage, divorce, politics. For me striking was, that more then 11 % of all these people sampled were member of a political party. Which the experts explain that some people do not know that they are member of a party and others are only member because its good or expected for their career. When we asked on the views and situations of people below that age, the Ministry people could not give any answer, as apparently they have never done a survey on this. „im Prinzip ja, aber“ weiterlesen

on the way to Hayastan

Right now I and three other people from the umbrella organisation of youth councils in Baden-Württemberg are on our way to Armenia, or as the natives call it Hayastan. We will go there to study youth participation and informal education. The trip is financed by the youth in action program of the EU and organised by the Polish Fundacja Civis Polonus. I hope to gain many insights into this country in „wilder“ Europe.

Whilst preparing I found this quote from a book about the Caucasus:

„Given all these problems, can one ever really think of the Caucasus as Europe? To conceive of Europe as a place that does not stop at the Oder River or even the Bosphorus became possible once Europe refashioned itself as a set of values rather than a self-evident set of boundaries.

Seeing things in that way has required a gargantuan effort to forget, to shove into the dark corners of the past those values that have most often defined Europeanness: nationalism, chauvinism, and a penchant for the authoritarian state.

In other words, it requires that today’s Europeans and those who wish to join them continue to do what they have done since 1945—to engage in a collective rethinking of the past that enables a creative, liberating, and humane imagining of the future.“ King, C. (2008). The Ghost of Freedom:A History of the Caucasus. Oxford University Press, USA.

It summs the situation, as far as I could gather from books, up very well. Now I’m eager to see the real thing. I’ll keep you updated here on my blog and also on my twitter. I hope to show you some pictures as well.

We will fly out there tonight arrive very early in the morning in Eriwan and then have parts of monday off, the meetings will start on tuesday and we will all be back on monday the 5th.

Panel discussion on european youth participation

Amongst  many other interesting stuff happening at the Tampere Seminar on European youth participation there was a panel on youth in politics. On the panel we had:

Sirpa Pietikäinen, Member of European Parliament (European People’s Party)
Till Burckhardt, Treasurer, Executive Bureau, JEF
Sissi Penttilä, Schengen Youth Assembly representative of Finland
Alina Böling, Youth delegate of Finland, United Nations
and the moderator was Fatim Diarra, Chair of International Affairs
Committee, Allianssi

STE-012_Panel_Discussion_mp3 (90 min, ca 90 mb)

Sometimes the language was difficult to understand, but Fatimas way of leading the discussion was really good. Lots of people had the chance to participate and it also a little bit controversial at times. Especially when Tim Burckhard of Jeff said he was disappointed by youth. Unfortunately we didn’t get a straight answer about continuing the youth in action program after 2013.

Of course the location was really hip: the council chamber of Tampere city council is the most beautiful part of the city hall.

NYRIS Turku: Youth Councils in Germany and Finnland

Unfortunatley he will not sing for us, but this Finnland trip will be good, too.

Today I’m off for Finland again to present my thesis about youth councils in the German state of Baden-Württemberg and Finland. I will present this at NYRIS 11 and be in the Comparative Youth Participation Session. I feel very honoured to be in a session with such important researchers and hope to have inspiring meetings there.

You will find me at Sessions 1 next Monday 13th of June at 15.30-17.00 in the EDU 244 Educarium, Assistentinkatu 5 Turku. And This is the abstract: Youth councils in BW and Fi Abstract Sebastian Müller

Here is the invitation:

YOUTH COUNCILS AND COUNCILORS IN THE GERMAN STATE OF BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG AND FINNLAND: A SURVEY ABOUT STRUCTURE, ATTITUDES AND CONDITIONS OF THEIR WORK

Presenter: Sebastian Müller

Keywords: Youth participation, youth councils, youth parliaments, Finland, Baden-Württemberg, comparative research,

Since 1996 there have been major developments in the field of youth councils in the State of Baden-Württemberg, the number rose from 16 to over 89 today. This study is the first survey of the attitudes of youth councilors in the German state of Baden-Württemberg since 1996 and the first comparative research of the conditions, attitudes and structure of youth councils and their members in Germany and Finland. It builds on previous research by Michael C. Hermann, “Jugendgemeinderäte in Baden-Wprttemberg, eine interdisziplinäre Evaluation” and the joint publication „Youth participation in Finland and in Germany – Status analysis and data based recommendations“ by Eva Feldmann-Wojtachnia, Anu Gretschel, Vappu Helmisaari et al. „NYRIS Turku: Youth Councils in Germany and Finnland“ weiterlesen