Airi-Alina Allaste: Defining the Level of Social Involvement of Youth
They say the youth are passive, they do not wish to deal with societal subjects nor take part in civic organisations or even youth organisations that deal with societal problems. Professor of sociology at Tallinn University, Airi-Alina Allaste, herein introduces a research that deals with this subject.
They say the youth are passive, they do not wish to deal with societal subjects nor take part in civic organisations or even youth organisations that deal with societal problems. Professor of sociology at Tallinn University, Airi-Alina Allaste, herein introduces a research that deals with this subject.
Conventional participation is very low especially in Eastern Europe, which lacks the traditional civic society patterns of participation. The results of an international research show that Estonia is more similar with Latvia, Hungary and Russia than with the Scandinavian countries. Then again, it would be an overstatement to claim that young people do not care about the society. Qualitative interviews show that the same young people from Estonia, who just claimed they do not care about politics or the society in general, talk about animal rights or protest actions merely 30 minutes later.
Even these youngsters who have called themselves absolutely passive share ironic political updates on Facebook, look up extra information on ongoing civic subjects and sign petitions. Or just click ‘like’ on the posts they feel connected to.
Therefore, it would be more correct to say the activity of young people has transformed and a large portion of them is more active in everyday life. Young people, who wish to distance themselves from the bad reputation of politics, do not define their actions as participation.
A newer discourse emphasises the blending of activism with lifestyle choices and private life. At the same time, the connection between everyday activism and traditional political engagement are becoming more important. In Scandinavia, the transformation between the two types of engagement is more seamless. In Estonia the distance between the people and the conventional policy makers is bigger and civil society organisations have been less politically active since the soviet times. This brings us to a question: are the young people, who express and state their opinions on-line, ready to take steps toward influencing decisions on the government level?
The sociologists at Tallinn University took part at a large-scale research called MYPLACE (Memory, Youth, Political Legacy and Civic Engagement 2011-2015) with 15 other European countries. The research focused on constructing the past, carrying it over to the younger generation and its influence on their activity. The participation levels were measured quantitatively and supplemented with qualitative interviews and ethnographic case studies.