Youth Civic Engagement: how can we do more?

As a young person, passionate about politics and activism, I have always been keen to engage in my community, by participating in cultural events and campaigning for civil rights. Because of this interest, and my motivation to make a change, I have often asked myself how to encourage my peers to get more involved, and wondered in particular whether my generation is willing to do so.

That is why, on 27 February, I accepted an invitation to an online event organised by the Genshagen Stiftung – an association with which I collaborated last year – to discuss youth civic engagement. In particular, I had the opportunity to hear and discuss the results of the Allianz Foundation research on “The Movers of Tomorrow? – How Young Adults in Europe Imagine and Shape the Future”, and what a fruitful event it was!

 About the Allianz Foundation and the study

The Allianz Foundation is an independent organisation pursuing the goal “to enable better living conditions for the next generations”, and providing data to give “new insights for civil society, its funders and policymakers”.

The study – published in October 2023 – covered the topic of the young generations (Gen Z and millennials) and their thoughts on the future. In particular, it was conducted through a representative survey among 10,000 young people from five European countries: Germany, Italy, Poland, the UK, and Greece. Additionally, the purpose of this research, was to give an answer to the following questions:

·             What kind of future society do young adults want to live in?

·             What kind of future society do they expect to live in?

·             And what action do they take to help create the future they want — and why/why not?

In sum, the study’s main research question was whether young adults were truly the “movers of tomorrow”.

Highlights of the event

During the event, the main results of the study were presented by Dr. Simon Morris-Lange, the foundation’s Head of Research, with whom participants later had the opportunity to debate. In the beginning, not only did he highlight the challenging aspects of the research, such as the data’s interpretation and the question of how they could be used, but also the key factors of young people’s motivation for civic engagement. 

Among the many surprising outcomes, Dr. Morris-Lange mentioned the high percentage of young people wondering whether to have children in the future. Indeed, eight out of ten openly questioned whether their generation should have children, as many believe their societies will become less livable in the future. Young people’s priorities were another interesting topic he addressed. In particular, he highlighted how security and affordability (e.g., a strong social safety net, affordable rent, safe public spaces) was the number one priority among 71% of young people. Having a living planet and social justice (e.g., carbon neutrality, low inequality) was the second highest priority among the surveyed youths, with an overall percentage of 52% (for more detailed information, see the link to the report at the end of this article).

Youths’ civic engagement

Of course, the data that I found particularly interesting was on civic action among young people, which has “many faces”, as mentioned in the study. In particular, Dr. Morris-Lange highlighted how young people were more inclined to individual actions (for example, voting 76%, donating money 63%, sharing political opinions 60%, and boycotting a product 45%), compared to collective actions (like having taken part in street protest 28%, non-violent civil disobedience 20%, and supporting a political party or movement 15%). Sixty per cent of the overall engaged youths considered climate change, discrimination and racism the most concerning issues and have consequently taken action. The reasons that move young people to become active and engage themselves, he said, were explained by the idea of doing everything one could for a better future (45%), seeing it as a duty (38%), and as a way to develop as a person (41%). This last consideration was, according to him, an aspect not to underestimate.

In contrast, he pointed out that obstacles to civic engagement were linked to lack of knowledge and time (32% and 29% respectively), unwillingness and uncertainty (around 50%) and considering it too risky (between 54% and 69%). Moreover, he added that young people deciding not to take action because of the fear of taking risks was not only out of fear of facing legal consequences, but mostly social ones, but also fear of losing contact with families and friends because of civic engagement.

My attendance: reflections

The discussion moved mostly to the topic of civic engagement, which was the aspect that I was most curious about. I asked Dr. Morris-Lange what more could be done to be more engaged, which as his research suggests does not only mean taking more collective action, and he highlighted the idea of starting with a smaller activity and celebrating small successes.

Another participant went further by asking him how to motivate people to take civic action, and he replied with the importance of “seizing the moment”. He said “not to underestimate the momentum of certain events”. To put it simply, he explained that even if it comes to events that can be bad or tragic (a war, or an earthquake, for instance), these moments “can become an opportunity” to move people to action. Motivating people when something happens is something one can work on, instead of letting these events “paralyse” you.

The debate around this particular point was worth the event for me. Indeed, notwithstanding the great number of topics and findings regarding youths and the future, Dr. Morris-Lange addressed the essence on how to take action without sounding too vague. Most importantly, what I appreciated the most was his willingness to do more with these data and make the best use of them. As he said, sharing this research on various platforms cannot be “the end of it”. This means that one must not stop just with the essence of the data, but think more about how they could be used without misinterpreting them, and to improve what can be improved.

Seize the moment

Therefore, I think it was important to share my attendance of this event for two main reasons. On the one hand, I got the chance to read an interesting research on the young adults’ vision of the future, managing to discuss civic action and the barriers around it. On the other hand, I had the opportunity to reflect on what we, as activists, can do to motivate our peers who fear to take action. In sum, let’s try to seize every moment and encourage others to start with a small action: this can really make us the “Movers of Tomorrow” and make a real impact!