Dialogue with youth ‘is not a dialogue among “elites”’: problematization of dialogue with unorganized youth in the EU

Abstract

While dialogues with the youth in the EU are understood as an important mechanism for co-shaping the EU youth policies, they are constantly confronted with the problem of the non-inclusion of unorganized youth. Applying the Foucauldian analytical problematization approach, the article illuminates three historical periods that led to the formation of the contemporary problem of the non-inclusion of unorganized youth in dialogues in the EU. The first period is the 1970s when, as a response to the youth protest, the European Community organized the first dialogues. The second at the beginning of the 2000s with political struggles on how to conduct dialogues with young people in the EU. Finally, the third period relates to the processes of institutionalization of dialogues with youth after the adoption of 2001 White Paper on Youth that resulted in the adoption of the Structured Dialogue as an official mechanism for co-shaping EU youth policies. In the article, we show that the inclusion of unorganized youth is a persisting problem that always represents an unfulfilled goal. This enables unorganized youth to be formed and framed as an object to be known and a target of political interventions of the EU youth policy.