Youth, civil society and crisis: participant observation within United Societies of Balkans.

Abstract

The scope of this thesis is to understand whether the current financial crisis, that has hardly hit Greece, has affected in any way the stance of young people towards civil society. The Greek financial crisis has started in 2008 and has had a great impact both on the financial and the social aspects of the citizens’ everyday life. Young people, aged 15 - 30, have witnessed massive changes in their lives, and as one of the most vulnerable social groups, they have faced many challenges caused by the economic recession. Thus, I would like to see whether in this context, youth would feel the need to shape new strategies and develop practices of identification and citizenship. Moreover, I would like to explore whether this need would be pursued by the participation of young people in youth organisations.