Moree, Jorian (2024) Levelling out the playing field: reducing barriers to youth participation in Dutch municipal governance. Master thesis, Cultural Geography - Climate Adaptation Governance (CAG).
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Abstract
The latest generation is required (e.g. by the omgevingswet) to participate in the Dutch democracy but falls short of the knowledge, education, and know-how to participate effectively. Recently, to combat the issue at hand, the Dutch parliament has been putting more attention toward other organisations to reduce the general knowledge deficit and gaps while providing the necessary education and tools for efficient and effective youth participation. The main aim of this thesis is to find key factors which can increase effective youth participation in local governance so as to increase the futureproof representation of young people from all socio-economic backgrounds. This has been researched by identifying existing issues, obstacles, thresholds, and bottlenecks to pinpoint concrete solutions, recommendations, and action points that can be used to lower the threshold of participation in local governance sustainably while also increasing general knowledge levels. The research follows two case studies: the Youth Council of Apeldoorn and the NGO Tienskip, which both take a different approach but have the same goal of connecting local youth to respective government institutions. The objective for both is to reduce gaps between local governance and their individual young participants which highlights the issues and barriers they face in stepping into the world of local democracy. By showing young people that their capacities and ideas matter they effectively decrease the idea that the government is a “ver-van-je-bed show”. By utilising the existing capacities and enthusiasm of young people while actively bringing them closer to local governance more young people can be reached to balance out the participative elite and enhance effective youth participation in local governance as to Futureproof governance. The results of this research have led to a couple of concrete recommendations which can be implemented to foster effective youth participation in municipal governance. 1) Actively provide young people with the tools (e.g. how to give an effective elevator pitch) necessary to navigate local governance; 2) Give young people the confidence to preach and act on their own initiatives and ideas; 3) Bring together young people and policy-makers to facilitate conversation; 4) Emphasise on the capacities and resourcefulness of young participants, which will allow trust and active participation to flourish; 5) It is vital to keep in mind that young people are individuals and not a group which shares the same opinions; 6) Young people should be involved in shaping youth participation: ‘voor en door jongeren’.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
|---|---|
| Name supervisor: | Belloir, A.C. |
| Date Deposited: | 10 Jun 2024 11:02 |
| Last Modified: | 10 Jun 2024 11:02 |
| URI: | https://campus-fryslan.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/465 |
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