Participation, empowerment and democracy : engaging with young people's views

This chapter explores new and emergent discourses and practices of youth participation, from within and beyond the field of youth work, and considers some of their unintended consequences. While youth participation means different things and is practised in diverse ways around the world, this chapter considers predominantly the ways participation has been conceptualised and practised in western, Anglophone democracies" specifically Australia where the debates have been rich and diverse. For more than four decades, Australian youth movements, advocacy and non-government organisations, youth workers and researchers have developed and promoted diverse approaches to participation (Collin, 2015) and Australian governments have actively proscribed policy to shape young citizen practices (Bessant, 2004; White and Wyn, 2004). The Australian focus, therefore, is a means by which to explore more general questions about the prospects for youth participation to enhance both the agency and recognition of young people as well as transform political processes and institutions.