MYPLACE findings are significant for understanding the very real challenges politicians and youth policy practitioners face in encouraging political engagement and participation among young people across Europe. While the MYPLACE project confirmed high levels of scepticism about formal politics and low levels of trust in its institutions, the way in which cynicism about politics is framed in young people’s own words suggests that the loss of trust in politics and politicians is strongly linked to the perception of politics having strayed from the pursuit of the public or collective good into a realm of self-promotion or pursuit of material self-interest. This suggests that the door is half-open not half-closed for politicians to actively engage with young people, who do not reject politics per se but a distorted version of ‘the political’.
Three Policy Briefs based on project findings are available here.
Fourteen National policy publications were produced in national languages. These publications reflect national circumstances and relevant policy priorities and are available here
Eight Thematic Reports highlighting key findings from different sources of MYPLACE data on: charts which summarise the location-specific findings on key variables from the survey. The reports cover the following themes:
- Democracy
- History and memory
- European issues
- Citizenship
- Attitudes and trust
- Political activism
- Religion
- Attitudes towards minority groups
The reports are available for download here.
MYPLACE findings are featured in EC media and communications as:
- Growing up in the shadow of intolerance
- Think young people aren’t interested in politics? You’ll be surprised
MYPLACE findings are featured in the EU Youth Report (2015) and in the FEPS Millennials and Politics, Call to Europe VI publication.
MYPLACE research is featured on the UK Local Government Knowledge Navigator (LGKN) platform
MYPLACE research findings on youth receptivity to radical right agendas are featured in the EU Policy Review ‘Addressing Terrorism: European Research in social sciences and the humanities in support to policies for inclusion and security‘ (2016).
The work for MYPLACE involved the production of research findings and policy implications in direct ‘co-productive’ relationships between academic researchers and museum and other ‘sites of memory’ partners, investigating young people’s interpretations of a ‘difficult period’ in the national/regional history. Videos of memory based museum events in Latvia, Russia, and Slovakia demonstrate the importance of working with practitioners and the reach that museums have in mobilising knowledge of past events. The videos are available here
MYPLACE: Memory, Youth, Political Legacy And Civic Engagement 