Youth transitions as ‘wiki-transitions’ in youth policies platforms

ABSTRACT

In recent years, a number of youth-focused online platforms have emerged which, in different ways, seek to support young people across Europe in building pathways to independent adulthood. In this article, we draw on data from Edgeryders, a recent youth policy research project, to reflect on the extent to which online discussion platforms are useful instruments for understanding the challenges youth face in their transitions to independent adulthood across Europe. Noting the collaborative emphasis articulated by both the project designers and participants, we ask how we might make sense of the data – and the meanings conveyed by that data – produced by online projects. We propose the notion of ‘wiki-transitions’ as a means of theorising young people’s use of online space to support their transitions to adulthood.

KEYWORDS:

• Youth policy
• online platforms
• wiki
• collaboration
• youth
• digital ethnography

Disclosure statement

Both authors worked as research analysts on the project discussed in this article. The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the Council of Europe.

Notes on contributors

Valentina Cuzzocrea is Assistant Professor at the University of Cagliari in Italy. She is past coordinator of the European Sociological Research Network ‘Youth & Generation’ and an experienced qualitative researcher. She has published internationally on youth with specific regard to the experience of work, geographical mobility, the future and its narratives, collaborative individualisation, the domestication of public space and wider issues of time and space.

Rebecca Collins is Senior Lecturer in Human Geography & Deputy Head of Department in the Department of Geography & International Development at the University of Chester. She is a qualitative researcher with specific interests in how the everyday material cultures of youth mediate young people's spatial, temporal and environmental knowledge and experience. She has held several roles on the RGS-IBG Geographies of Children, Youth & Families Research Group; at present she holds the role of Workshop Officer.

Notes

1 In the majority of European countries there is no systematic monitoring of the results of these programs (Eurofound 2014).

2 A catalogue can be viewed in the project archive, hosted by the new Edgeryders website (requires signing up to a free log-in): http://edgeryders.eu. General findings are discussed extensively in Collins (2013).

3 https://edgeryders.eu/c/workspaces/open-ethnographer.

4 Participants’ names are reported as displayed on the Edgeryders platform; some used their actual names, others employed pseudonyms. A small number remained anonymous.

5 At the time of writing, it exists in the form of a social enterprise and collaborative research network dedicated to addressing a range of socio-economic challenges, from healthcare to sustainable food systems (https://edgeryders.eu/) using an ‘open consulting’ model, drawing on the expertise from its now vast network. The online community has continued to grow (to over 5,000 registered users in June 2019) and the platform has migrated to a service better able to cope with the growing number of workstreams, research projects and conversations.