Policies of Crises in the European Union Youth Field: How a Political Agenda Shapes the Concept of Youth

Abstract

The article investigates the political discourse on youth in the aftermath of the economic crisis. Based on the EU Youth Strategy, the article analyses how the concept of youth is shaped by political discourse and agenda setting. The authors show that the EU Youth Strategy is highly focussed on activating young people as entrepreneurs who are supposed to become active and productive members of society. They argue that the Strategy represents specific meanings about young people and thus reframes the concept of youth as an “entrepreneurial self”.