Abstract

The challenges faced by young people across Europe have been the focus of public, political and academic debates at local, national and international levels. Young people face tough choices in key areas of social life that affect their participation in society, and their potential marginalisation from it: from structural issues of unemployment, lack of access to affordable housing and debt problems, to information overload on big questions like the environment, identity, faith and radicalisation, and negotiating the moral challenges of illegal markets and an increasingly sexualised social-media generation. While there are wide variations in opportunities and challenges between and within countries, young people today face tough choices in negotiating this moral maze.

The project PROMISE - Promoting Youth Involvement and Social Engagement – Opportunities and challenges for 'conflicted' young people across Europe will investigate how young people’s, often negative, responses to these problems create conflict, and how, instead, their responses can provide opportunities for positive social engagement. By addressing the experiences, values and attitudes of European youth seen to be in conflict with older generations, authorities and social norms, PROMISE will get to the heart of barriers and opportunities for social engagement.

The project is running from May 2016 to April 2019 and involves 12 collaborating centres in 10 different European countries. It is coordinated by a research team of the University of Manchester led by Dr. Jo Deakin (Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice | School of Law | University of Manchester | Manchester | M13 9PL; jo.deakin@manchester.ac.uk ).

In Portugal PROMISE is being developed by a research team of Universidade Católica Portuguesa - Porto led by Dr. Raquel Matos (Research Centre for Human Development I Rua de Diogo Botelho, 1327 I 4169-005 Porto; rmatos@porto.ucp.pt ).