Strengthening the Role of Youth Work in Contesting Dynamics of Shrinking Cities
Strengthening the Role of Youth Work in Contesting Dynamics of Shrinking Cities

Contributor(s): Boris Stamenić (Editor), Sandra Rozman (Editor)
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Social Sciences, Economy, Civil Society, Sociology, Labor relations, Social development, Demography and human biology, Economic development, Socio-Economic Research
Published by: Documenta - Centar za suočavanje s prošlošću
Keywords: shrinking cities; population loss; youth work; activism; demography; good practices; Croatia; Spain; Portugal; Germany;
Summary/Abstract: A great deal has been written about the causes and impacts of shrinkage, as well as about policies and planning strategies. Nevertheless, the state of knowledge in a cross-national perspective is rather poor since studies have focused more on large cities with empirical evidence ignoring the contextual influence on local dynamics (Wolff, Wiechmann; 2017). A shrinking city is one that has experienced population loss, employment decline and social issues as symptoms of a structural crisis (Martinez-Fernandez; 2012). This shows how complex the shrinkage process is and thus requires a more detailed explanation of push factors. The idea that there is no future prospect for them in their place of residence seems to be the crucial push factor for people to leave their home. This project has focused on building new strategies of social inclusion and civic engagement for youth residing in Europe’s “shrinking cities” and is a result of a collaboration between eight partner organizations from four EU countries: Documenta and Croatian Youth Network from Croatia, EJBW and Culture Goes Europe from Germany, YouthCoop and UMAR from Portugal as well as Asociacion Caminos and ColPolSoc - Andalucia from Spain. In the planning process, the partner organizations conducted a preliminary research and provided information about shrinking cities and their relation to the youth in their countries. There has been a unanimous conclusion that the socio-economic problems cause the cities to shrink which in turn has enormous effects mainly on the youth. On the other hand, there is a great number of young people who believe that they can make a difference and change things for the better. For this, the youth needs access to the commonly accepted tools and improved practices that can be used in their own social and cultural contexts. Therefore, youth work should provide a bridge that strengthens young people at a personal level but also promotes public action as well as learning about translating key values of youth work into reality. Moreover, engagement in the wide variety of personal and social development activities will help young people to develop the knowledge and the skills that are needed in the labour market, given the fact that 3.5 million young people are unemployed in the EU (Eurostat, 2018). The organizations embraced the idea of conducting proper research as well as mapping that would ensure a better understanding of the similarities and differences between various problems while at the same time providing methods for learning how to deal with critical socio-economic dynamics at different local settings across the EU. It was also deemed important to investigate examples of successful youth work, to identify and document their innovativeness and then disseminate the results with a wider outreach.

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