Kaasamisest säutsumiseni: noorte osaluse erinevad tahud

Lühikokkuvõte

From engagement to tweeting: Different facets of youth participation

Abstract

Numerous recent studies refer to the fact that the understanding of youth political participation is changing. The concept itself is more diversified than in the past - in addition to participating in top-down organised activities such as occasional participation in demonstrations, influencing social issues in fan clubs, expressing opinions on social media and general consumer behaviour are considered participation amongst other things. However, a decrease in conventional political engagement among young people is a general trend and in post-socialist countries, youths are even less likely to participate in conventional ways compared to peers in mature democracies. Democratization in Estonia fell to a period when the influence of parties and mainstream media began to decline throughout Europe. It is said that there has been a transition from dutiful citizenship to so-called actualizing citizenship. If a dutiful citizen preferred government-centred activities and expressed interests through parties and other organisations, an actualizing citizen favours a loose network of community action and mistrusts both the mainstream media and politicians. Presumably, dutiful citizenship has never been a prevailing trend in Estonia due to the socio-political context. Therefore, we cannot talk about its replacement, but rather about the formation of ways of being a citizen. The introductory article opens up the participation of young people in Estonia who stay away from party politics and explains a little about the context of the articles in the special issue: political participation in social media; the participation of different young people and supporting the participation of young people.