Origins

The periodical Conference Young People and Society in Europe and the Mediterranean has been promoted since 2003 from France by four institutions, two devoted to research and two to training: the Centre d'Études et des Recherches sur les qualifications (CEREQ) and the Laboratoire d'Economie et de Sociologie du Travail (LEST); and the Institut Nationale de Jeunesse et d'Education Populaire (INJEP) and the Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres (IUFM). It aims to build up a permanent Euro-Mediterranean debate and knowledge exchange on youth reality and the relations of young people with their societies.

The Conference gathers social science researchers from different disciplines (Economy, Sociology, History, Anthropology, Political Science, Law, Demography, Psychology, etc.) in order to improve the corpus of knowledge on the social situation of young people, especially considering their social context more than considering them as an analytical category by themselves.

Since its first edition in Marseille in October 2003 the Conference has build up a researchers network and consolidated the knowledge on youth reality and youth policies at the local, regional and national level within the Euro-Mediterranean zone. Five more conferences have been celebrated since then, three in Marseille (2003, 2005 and 2007) and the others in Forli (Italy, 2009) and Montpellier (France, 2010).

Barcelona 2012 Conference

The sixth edition of the Conference will be in June 2012 in Barcelona and has two specific objectives: the first one is to strengthen the Euro-Mediterranean character of the Conference, both considering the origins of the participants and the discussion issues, and also the fact the Union for the Mediterranean has its headquarters in Barcelona. International comparisons at this level are thus strongly encouraged.

The second aim consists of strengthen the socio-political scope of research and knowledge-transfer. Historically, youth research has been deeply linked to policy-making on youth issues. Thus the Conference aims to promoting dialogue between the research and policy fields. The recently created Mediterranean Office for Youth also gives an incentive to this debate.

These objectives are reflected in the Conference's title Young People and Societies in Europe and the Mediterranean: Itineraries and Identities in an Internationalization Context and in its Workshops:

1)   Identities, Flows and Mobility

The construction processes of the young people's social and personal identities in the context of economical and cultural globalization have become a central object of reflection for the Social Sciences; researchers have also focused on the re-emergence of the local and on the individualization of the biographical itineraries.

The young people, as the main group age in which identity processes take place, undergoes a tension resulting from its social condition and from the social context marked by informational capitalism, migrations and mobility.

2)    Education, Work and Transitions

This workshop is devoted to the impact of the economical and financial crisis and the mutations of informational capitalism on the young people's transition processes. The impact of educational and training schemes reforms on the itineraries of young people, together with the de-regulation and individualization of the labour market, have generated a new context in which linear transitions diminish and precariousness and uncertainty generally increase, despite the local differences.

3)    Participation, Politics and Social Movements.

Workshop devoted to the different forms of social participation among young people depending on social conditions, territories and political contexts; the evolution of values and cultural patterns that partially explain the new forms of participation; and to the role of social networks and the ICT in this processes.

The social movements and uprisings in the Magrheb and the Middle East, mostly led by young people, are especially relevant for the Conference's objective to analyze the processes of social mobilization and democratization.

4)    Transitions into adulthood and Intergenerational Relations

This workshop will focus, encouraging international comparison, in the ruptures and changes in the transitional processes, the role intergenerational relations have in this new context and in the patterns of reproduction and gender relations in these processes.

5)    Youth Policies in the Euro-Mediterranean Region.

Workshop devoted to analysing in the role of youth policies and youth work on the transition processes of young people. Youth policies will be understood in a broad sense: Education, Training and Work policies; Cultural policies; Housing and Family policies; Inclusion and Social policies. An international perspective, both at national at local level, is strongly encouraged.

Working languages: Catalan, Spanish, French and English.

Workshops working languages: oral presentations will be allowed in Catalan or Spanish if they are accompanied with visual support in French or English.

Papers

• Abstracts:
• Length: up to 2.000 characters (spaces included).
• Structure:

• 1. Objectives.
• 2. Methodology.
• 3. Results.

• Workshop: authors must allocate their abstracts in one of the Workshops.

• Acceptance criteria:
• Affinity to the motto of the Conference. Young People and Society in Europe and the Mediterranean
• International comparison.
• Innovation.
• Other relevant papers might be accepted.

More Information