"Joku porukka tekee joitain päätöksiä tuolla jossain" : tutkimus laman jälkeen varttuneen nuorison politiikkakäsityksistä

Authors

• Vesa Koskimaa

Abstract

There is a widespread understanding that younger generations in the developed West are turning their backs on traditional methods of political participation. The phenomenon has been widely recognized and the explanations for its occurrence have been various. It seems, however, that the given explanations have something in common, namely, the idea that political culture has changed. And, as the generational argument suggests, this change has produced a new political generation which sees politics from a wholly different perspective. In this article a qualitatively oriented approach is used to describe what young people actually mean when they think about politics. Then, by comparing our results with results from similar studies from some 25 years ago, it is concluded that, paradoxically, the basic perceptions of politics among the Finnish youth have not changed in any dramatic way. Even today, the young people still tend to think about politics in a highly formal, consensual and distant manner. Therefore, it seems – based on these quite general comparisons – that the new political generation is yet to emerge.