Bart Cammaerts, Michael Bruter, Shakuntala Banaji, Sarah Harrison, and Nicholas Anstead
Palgrave Macmillan (October 2015)
This book analyses and assesses the contexts, nature and the diversity of young people's participation in European democratic life. The authors provide an interdisciplinary conceptual framework addressing participation, power, democracy, efficacy and media. Using dynamic, original data collected in surveys, focus groups, interviews and a field experiment, Youth Participation in Democratic Life address young people's attitudes towards voting, participation and representation in policy processes and politicians.
Democracy is, however, much more than voting, so volunteering and contentious politics are also elaborated upon. Examining the role of traditional and new media in facilitating youth participation in democratic life, as well as the complex dynamics of youth exclusion from economic, educational and social spheres, the book reveals that most young people are far from apathetic about democracy but rather they are critical of current representative democratic systems and the political elites who appear to run these.
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Bart Cammaerts is Associate Professor at the Department of Media and Communications of LSE, where he is the Director of the PhD program.
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Michael Bruter is Professor of Political Science at the Department of Government of LSE.
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Shakuntala Banaji is Director of the MSc in Media, Communication and Development in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE.
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Sarah Harrison is a Research Fellow within the Department of Government at LSE.
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Nick Anstead is Assistant Professor at the Department of Media and Communications of LSE. He is the Director of the MSc in Politics and Communication.
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