Residents, customers or citizens? Tracing the idea of youthful participation in the context of administrative reforms in Finnish public administration

In parallel with developing participatory policies, public administration in Finland and elsewhere has undergone constitutive administrative reform. By analysing policy documents and civil servants’ experiences, we ask how meta-level administrative steering modes manifest themselves in the motives and goals set for participation and what kinds of political agencies they allow for children and young people who play a pivotal role in the future shape of democracy. We conclude that coexisting different steering modes produce different practical solutions that define the content of “citizenship” in different ways. What is essential is the reflectivity concerning whether one or another steering mode dominates participation policy, and with what consequences.