BKHS-Perspectives#01_2021 | Young, digital, committed?

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Since the successful mobilisations of Fridays for Future in Germany, young people's political engagement has once again gained more attention after a long period of postulating that young people were disinterested in politics. In addition to representative participation processes, many young people in Germany are increasingly opting for less institutionalised forms of participation and are increasingly getting involved in protests instead of political parties, for example. This shows that for many young people there are major differences between online and offline participation. There is a parallel debate about young people and their use of media. The assumption that "young people" are barely informed and are primarily interested in how they present themselves on social media persists. On closer inspection, it becomes clear how closely the two forms - political participation and political information behaviour - are linked. Whether young people participate online and / or offline has a bearing on how they inform themselves about politics - and ultimately how they position themselves.

On 7 September, we want to present the first insights of our one-year research project of the Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation and d|part - Think Tank for Political Participation on the political information and participation behaviour of young people in Germany to the specialist public. Based on the statistical analysis of common data sets and their coupling with conducted focus groups, we present our initial findings, which provide a differentiated picture of young people today.
Our first issue of the BKHS-Blickwinkel is published in this context and can be downloaded free of charge.