Suchergebnisse

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the diversity of youth civic action by pre-senting several examples of what young citizenship concretely is and can be in the European Union (EU). This will be done by placing Theodore Marshall's (1950) classical, modern formulation of citizenship in different contemporary contexts, and thus also going beyond the modern conception of citizenship. Contexts such as the globalizing world, new conditions for transitions into adulthoods, new forms of political participation of youth, and the transformation of politics (media politics) as well as consumption will be elaborated upon. In addition to Marshall's triad — civic, political and social — media citizenship, consumer citizenship, cosmopolitan and global citizenship will be discussed as new types of civic virtue (late modern civic virtue). The genre of the article falls into the special category of reflectively open research texts with a touch of a criticism and politicization. The text is not based on any specific empirical corpus as research texts conventionally are.

This article intends to outline major characteristics, theoretical and empirical traditions, and ideologies and discourses related to Finnish youth cultural research. Historically speaking, the cultural socialization of the young Finnish nation after independence was a very special national project: 'young' citizens were socialized in a patronizing and enlightening manner to become true and loyal Finns. Diverse popular and youth cultural phenomena have formed a central pillar in the formulation of Finnishness and the national identity of Finnish youth. Also academic interest in popular cultures arose rather early. In this article, Finnish youth cultural research is described along two orientations, namely socio-politically orientated youth studies and more (post-)structurally orientated cultural studies. It is argued that the distinguishing feature of the Finnish youth research field is its somewhat ambivalent status in the crossroads between these two orientations. The article also analyses the complex role of youth researchers as political actors, and emphasizes that one of the special features of Finnish youth research is its close connection with those active in the field of youth policy.