Browsing by Author "Koskinen, Patrik"

Young people's democratic participation has sparked extensive discussions both globally and nationally in the recent years. Previous research suggests that in the strategies of global actors such as the EU and OECD regarding urban and youth policies, young people's democratic par-ticipation is strongly linked to the premises of the labor market and active citizenship. The the-sis politicizes institution-driven practices of engaging youth and provides tools for those work-ing with youth participation issues to question public administration's hidden normative goals and practices. In my master's thesis, I examined the globally advocated notion of youth participation as orient-ed towards labor and business, viewing it as a neoliberal governance endeavor. From this per-spective, I investigated the form that this notion, promoted by global actors, takes in youth par-ticipation systems at the municipal level in Finland. The research data was derived from the ac-tion plan of the Ruuti participation system aimed at young people in Helsinki, which I critically analyzed using a perspective influenced by Michel Foucault's thinking on governance analytics. Guided by the theoretical framework of the action plan, I analyzed discourses to understand the types of governance they enable and the subjectivities and practices they produce about young people. Based on the analysis, the Ruuti action plan generated a new form of governance thinking and a subjectivity derived from neoliberal governance, namely that of an active consultant-learner who is flexible and adept at functioning in networks as an active citizen. For this subjectivity, self-assessment of one's actions, drafting action plans, evaluating their implementation, and continuous skills development are inherent parts of participation and influence. As a further re-search suggestion, I propose examining the discourses and subjectivity extracted from the Ruuti action plan at the level of practical activities through ethnographic research. Additionally, addi-tional data could be generated to understand the rationales of various stakeholders regarding youth participation.