In summer 2002, Dr Kerry Longhurst won an award of €141,000 to conduct research into the Political Participation of Young People in Europe (EUYOUPART) as part of a European Fifth Framework project funded by the European Commission.
Work began in January 2003 in collaboration with partner institutes in Austria, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy and Slovakia. On 1 June 2003, Dr James Sloam was appointed as a research fellow to work on the project.
The aim of the study was to look into youth political participation from the perspective of public policy, NGOs, academic literature, and – most importantly – from young people themselves. Through an analysis of a broad range of studies and through the use of qualitative research (focus groups, individual interviews), the group has produced and tested a quantitative survey on the Political Participation in Young People across Europe.
The project has completed National Reports examining existing academic literature, previous research projects, and previous survey questionnaires. Planning meetings have been held for these purposes in Helsinki and Talinn. A special workshop, was held for the lead partners in the qualitative analysis in Birmingham (August, 2003). The study undertook both qualitative and quantitative research (focus groups, individual interviews, surveys) and the analysis of this data in 2004. The findings of the project were presented at a Symposium in Vienna (2005), organised by the Insitute of German Studies (Birmingham) project group.