Three Modes of Participation: An Approach to Analyse Young People’s Access to Civic Organizations

Considerable attention has been paid to the promotion of young people’s participation in civic organizations. Despite these organizations’ overarching assertion to be inclusive to all youth, participation is still unevenly distributed among social groups. To explore this disparity between organizational aims and practices, 85 young participants from 19 Danish civic youth organizations were interviewed. The interviews revolved around their personal motivation and practices and organizational initiatives to create access for new and underrepresented youth groups. Crosscutting analysis identifies three distinctly different modes of participation: 1) outward-facing, 2) inward-facing and 3) formal modes. Subsequent analysis shows that while these three modes are equally embedded and significant parts of organizational practices, accessibility to participation differs greatly. The findings point to the importance of future studies and organizational endeavours to not only focus on representation in numbers but also on what modes of participation young people have access to within the organizations.