Young people’s civic engagement and political participation

In this chapter, Sally Power looks at school students’ engagement in civil society – an issue about which very little is known. Drawing on survey data with 1000 14-year-olds in Wales, this chapter challenges the largely negative media portrayals of young people as being selfishly- rather than civically-minded. Levels of associational membership among these young people are high, and levels of charitable activity and volunteering are extraordinarily high – engaged in by the overwhelming majority of young people and far more frequently than by older people. However, the data also indicate that young people are very ambivalent about the value of these activities which must raise issues about future levels of civil and political participation.