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International Conference on Youth Policy and Research: From Theory to

Practice – Evidence Based Youth Policy, UN Centre Vienna, 23 – 25


September 2009
(Plenary session 23 September 15:30 – 18:30)
Theorising youth: a resource for developing transversal youth policies
Lynne Chisholm
All social action – and hence policymaking – is informed, typically implicitly, by
frameworks of ideas that make sense of the world: social action rests on
theorising, but not usually explicitly or systematically. This leaves little room for
critical analysis and counter-intuition, yet it is these that are more likely to
prompt innovation, which suggests that theorising as a creative activity founded
in rational argument and culling evidence is an under-used resource in
policymaking. This could explain some of the sluggishness of youth policymaking
in shifting decisively from sectoral care and control agendas to the autonomy and
participation agendas of fluid life-politics. Young people generally know where
they are, but youth policies are still looking for them and the evidence does not
come together to construct the transversal picture. Middle-range theorising could
strengthen the innovative capacity of those who both inform and implement
political decisions. It can act as a relay between abstract macro-theories (such as
‘restructuration of the youth phase’) and variable analysis (such as ‘youth
unemployment rates are on the rise’), offering viable accounts of current issues,
problems and trends for specific life domains. This has some potential for
developing transversal youth policies, since middle-range theories chart patterns
and interpret their significance for the transversal picture, which facilitates
making connections across policy sectors and, if one will, supports more joined-
up youth policymaking.

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