Patricia Loncle is a senior researcher at the School of Public Health in Rennes (France). Morena Cuconato is an associate professor for Social Pedagogic at the University of Bologna. Virginie Muniglia is Research engineer at the School of Public Health in Rennes (France). Andreas Walther is Professor for Education, Social Pedagogy and Youth Welfare at the University of Frankfurt (Germany).

"this book brings together a number of important debates about youth participation in sociology, social policy and political science." LSE Review of Books "I strongly encourage reading this book as it provides a much needed starting point for a better and more inclusive dialogue on youth participation." Youth Voice Journal "This edited collection, drawing on the contributors' involvement in European-level research and other inquiry, interrogates the complexity of the idea of youth participation. It represents an important corrective to the bland, arguably naive, positions that too often prevail." Howard Williamson, University of Glamorgan

• Introduction: The analysis of youth participation in contemporary literature: a European perspective ~ Virginie Muniglia, Morena Cuconato, Patricia Loncle and Andreas Walther; Part 1: Same word, same meaning? Participating in a changing world: Youth participation: Strong discourses, weak policies, a general perspective ~ Patricia Loncle, Pat Leahy, Virginie Muniglia and Andreas Walther; Participation and individualisation: The emergence of a new (political) consciousness? ~ Reingard Spannring; Informal education in a historical perspective: Between an instrument of social education and a socio educational practice ~ Filip Coussée and Tony Jeffs; Part 2 National and local policies for youth participation: Celebrating pluralism: Beyond established forms of youth participation ~ Lasse Siurala and Heini Turkia; Youth participation in the framework of the reformulation of local youth policies in Italy ~ Morena Cuconato, Nicola De Luigi and Alessandro Martelli; Barriers to participation within a recessionary State: Impediments confronting Irish youth ~ Pat Leahy and Paul Burgess; Youth participation and local social and youth policies in Spain ~ Lourdes Gaitán; Part 3: Extending spaces of participation: The interplay of youth culture, the Web 2.0 and political participation in Europe: New reflections after the Youth Quake in Northern Africa and the Middle East ~ Morena Cuconato and Natalia Waechter; Young people and online civic participation: Key findings from a Pan-European research project ~ Shakuntala Banaji and David Buckingham; Young people and mental health: When ICT becomes a tool of participation in public health in Finland ~ Camilla Granholm; Part 4: Participation and learning: Learning to participate or participating to learn? ~ Andreas Walther; Pupils' participation in French secondary schools: The interplay between tradition and innovation ~ Valérie Becquet; Outlook and conclusions: Participation or non-participation? Getting beyond dichotomies by applying and ideology-critical, a comparative and biographical perspective ~ Andreas Walther; Afterword: Dynamic and socially embedded: Biographies of participation in youth ~ Gill Jones.

Patricia Loncle is a senior researcher at the School of Public Health in Rennes (France). Morena Cuconato is an associate professor for Social Pedagogic at the University of Bologna. Virginie Muniglia is Research engineer at the School of Public Health in Rennes (France). Andreas Walther is Professor for Education, Social Pedagogy and Youth Welfare at the University of Frankfurt (Germany).

"this book brings together a number of important debates about youth participation in sociology, social policy and political science." LSE Review of Books "I strongly encourage reading this book as it provides a much needed starting point for a better and more inclusive dialogue on youth participation." Youth Voice Journal "This edited collection, drawing on the contributors' involvement in European-level research and other inquiry, interrogates the complexity of the idea of youth participation. It represents an important corrective to the bland, arguably naive, positions that too often prevail." Howard Williamson, University of Glamorgan

• Introduction: The analysis of youth participation in contemporary literature: a European perspective ~ Virginie Muniglia, Morena Cuconato, Patricia Loncle and Andreas Walther; Part 1: Same word, same meaning? Participating in a changing world: Youth participation: Strong discourses, weak policies, a general perspective ~ Patricia Loncle, Pat Leahy, Virginie Muniglia and Andreas Walther; Participation and individualisation: The emergence of a new (political) consciousness? ~ Reingard Spannring; Informal education in a historical perspective: Between an instrument of social education and a socio educational practice ~ Filip Coussée and Tony Jeffs; Part 2 National and local policies for youth participation: Celebrating pluralism: Beyond established forms of youth participation ~ Lasse Siurala and Heini Turkia; Youth participation in the framework of the reformulation of local youth policies in Italy ~ Morena Cuconato, Nicola De Luigi and Alessandro Martelli; Barriers to participation within a recessionary State: Impediments confronting Irish youth ~ Pat Leahy and Paul Burgess; Youth participation and local social and youth policies in Spain ~ Lourdes Gaitán; Part 3: Extending spaces of participation: The interplay of youth culture, the Web 2.0 and political participation in Europe: New reflections after the Youth Quake in Northern Africa and the Middle East ~ Morena Cuconato and Natalia Waechter; Young people and online civic participation: Key findings from a Pan-European research project ~ Shakuntala Banaji and David Buckingham; Young people and mental health: When ICT becomes a tool of participation in public health in Finland ~ Camilla Granholm; Part 4: Participation and learning: Learning to participate or participating to learn? ~ Andreas Walther; Pupils' participation in French secondary schools: The interplay between tradition and innovation ~ Valérie Becquet; Outlook and conclusions: Participation or non-participation? Getting beyond dichotomies by applying and ideology-critical, a comparative and biographical perspective ~ Andreas Walther; Afterword: Dynamic and socially embedded: Biographies of participation in youth ~ Gill Jones.