All Youth Want to Rule their World (ALL-YOUTH)

Public description of the results at the end of the project

The research project explored the capacities of young people (aged 16 to 25 years) to participate in society and the obstacles that hamper their engagement with society. We explored young people's visions regarding sustainable future, well-being and societal participation. We developed a framework which links young people's societal participation to sustainable well-being. In the sub-studies we documented how young people are active members of society, how societal discussions interest them and how simultaneously young people's societal participation is discussed from and adult-centric perspective, often preventing young people's genuine possibilities to participate. It seems especially difficult to identity and acknowledge the societal participation of those young people who are labelled as problematic, despite the fact that they are active and articulate societal injustices. We developed practical models through which young people can take part in topical societal discussions.

Public description of the goals at the beginning of the project

A huge challenge of contemporary Finnish society is that becoming a citizen in the 2010s is marked by multiple obstacles. There is an increasing degree of mistrust and frustration among youth (aged here from 16 to 25), which can currently be observed in their low voting rates and criticism towards the current political system. This may hinder the stability of society and, consequently, sustainable growth. Currently, young people’s own capacities, and the obstacles that hamper their engagement with society, are broadly unrecognized. Going against the trend of depicting youth as recipients of projects, ALL-YOUTH explores the visions of youth themselves regarding a sustainable future, growth and wellbeing. To counter the challenges above, the multidisciplinary ALL-YOUTH project will use three key ideas for sustainable growth: good governance and rule of law, digital innovation and bioeconomy.Young people occupy a strategic position in the future development of society in these key areas.