This article discusses the empowering potential of spaces that enable youth participation. It proposes that a perspective on participation as a process of learning rather than as control over resources opens up novel insights on the ways participatory processes unfold. Drawing from empirical work in the UK and Greece, the article looks at the dynamic potential of youth participation as it is expressed through social practices and social relations in given spaces, to identify distinct facets of participation such as performative, managerial and creative. It concludes that youth participation can be empowering when it is linked to other domains of young people's experience and when its capacity to produce diverse processes and outcomes is recognized.

Using the implementation of the Youth Guarantee (YG) in the Italian context (Lombardy) as its point of departure, this article exemplifies the introduction of the YG scheme in national realities. Through review of relevant policy documents, the article identifies a contradiction between the policy model implied through the YG that builds upon a concept of active citizenship and an employment context that in reality offers limited structural opportunities for the enactment of these principles during processes of youth transition. This article will argue that initiatives for youth employment that are de-contextualized and lack a clear vision of youth lives can reinforce the existing order and power imbalances as they offer limited support for young people to develop a sense of success, self-determination and agency in terms of employability.

This article presents current debates regarding the presence of young people in the public domain. There is a wealth of discussion and perplexity regarding how young people choose to get active in the public domain that originates from the distinct use of the term political in academic and policy debates. This article will proceed in the following way: it will summarise the main tenets of the Decline discourse, it will present how the Personalisation discourse draw our attention to alternative ways of involvement, it will discuss how Context focused discourses highlight how participatory decision making relates to the ways young people conceptualise their daily lived experience, and concludes arguing that youth participation can be better understood when it is contextualised within everyday lived experience. Debates sobre a participação da juventude: de cidadãos em treinamento a agentes da vida socialResumo: Este artigo apresenta debates atuais sobre a presença da juventude na vida pública. Existe um rico debate e muitos questionamentos sobre o modo como os jovens decidem se engajar na vida pública, resultante do uso especial da palavra política nas discussões acadêmicas e sobre políticas públicas. O artigo está assim organizado: em primeiro lugar apresenta uma síntese dos princípios centrais do discurso do Declínio, e depois explicita como o discurso da Personalização salienta formas alternativas de engajamento. A seguir, é analisado o modo pelo qual os discursos focalizados no Contexto enfatizam o modo como os processos participativos de decisão se relacionam com a maneira de jovens conceituarem suas experiências cotidianas. O artigo conclui afirmando que a participação da juventude pode ser melhor entendida quando contextualizada nas experiências vividas no cotidiano. Palavras-chave: Juventude. Participação. Discurso do declínio. Personalização. Experiência vivida.

This paper presents a case study of a youth organisation working with families in extreme poverty and lack of adequate housing in Chile and Mexico. It initially describes the considerable structural changes that relate to the emergence of the organisation, and then discusses how across context case study research that draws from the interpretivist interactionist tradition was employed. In the main body it presents interventions that aim to provide families with temporary accommodation, social support, education, micro-credit opportunities, and legal support. The paper aims to contribute to a discussion concerning wider insights to be gained from context-specific approaches in working with families. The article highlights the need for policy and practice that approaches families as complex, dynamic and context specific entities that are re-configured through their networks and interpersonal interactions, and are subject to particular plays of power relations. Furthermore, it argues for practice that fosters family agency that is based on recognition of strengths, emotional and cognitive aspects of decision making as well as nurturing of hope.