Participating to transform: Youth, agency and resistance in a globalized context

Youth participation is of great interest across many fields and disciplines. In recent decades, the modes, spaces, and timings of civic and political participation have shifted, with increased emphasis on individual action, reflexivity, and the blending of online and offline spheres. This qualitative study, based on 13 in-depth interviews with young Catalans, explores the factors shaping their engagement and commitment, through a critical analysis linking structural conditions with individual experience. Different profiles of young people regarding participatory activities and their sense of agency have been identified. All of them contribute to projects of collective transformation from individual standpoints, although some display a stronger collective agency, grounded in transformative and prefigurative perspectives. The results reveal how superstructures such as neoliberalism and meritocracy influence not only opportunities for social participation, but also the capacity to imagine and articulate desirable futures. Most feel disconnected and disaffected from public institutions. In response, new forms of social participation have emerged as more accessible mechanisms, offering spaces of resistance aligned with their needs and values. Nevertheless, doubts remain about their effectiveness in confronting a global context marked by uncertainty and multiple crises. The findings highlight the need to rethink public policy and community approaches.