Youth as protagonists of Europe’s social advancement

BIC Brussels — Recent years have seen growing acceptance across Europe that young people should have a voice in the policies that shape their lives. A new statement from the Brussels Office of the Bahá’í International Community (BIC), released as the European Union develops a new Youth Strategy, asks what it would mean to go further: to see young people as protagonists who are not only heard but entrusted with responsibility for the life of their communities.

Titled “Protagonists of Social Advancement: The Irreplaceable Role of Youth in Europe,” the recently published statement is one contribution to a conversation the Brussels Office has sustained for several years with European institutions and other social actors. This has included meetings with European parliamentarians, participation in European Youth Week, and forums convened by the Office itself, including a recent workshop bringing together local municipalities and youth organizations.

Alessandro Benedetti, a representative of the Office, in a conversation with the News Service, observed that the idea of young people as essential social actors is already widely shared. “It is mentioned by European policymakers at different levels. But to truly bring this into reality is a much harder job.”

The question, he suggested, is at what point young people enter the process. “Adding a seat at the table so that young people can express their voice is one real dimension of participation,” he said. “But it is quite different from saying that young people should be protagonists in a process of social advancement and share in reimagining society itself.”

The BIC statement highlights that participation understood as involvement in institutional and political processes alone cannot draw on the potential present among millions of Europe’s young people—the capacity of every one of them to contribute meaningfully to society.

Two conditions are identified in the statement as allowing that capacity to find expression. Drawing on the experience of the Bahá’í community, the statement describes educational processes that enable young people to translate moral and ethical principles into action, to analyze society and its possibilities, and to combine study with acts of service.

“Such processes do more than develop agency,” it states, “they also provide the moral orientation that enables young people to direct that agency towards the advancement of the common good.”

The second condition is that the environments shaping young people’s lives—educational, civic, social, and media—reinforce their role as protagonists rather than casting them as consumers or audiences.

Four areas are named where the contribution of young people is irreplaceable: strengthening community life and intergenerational relationships, building societal unity across Europe’s diversity, reimagining society’s relationship with media and technology, and shaping multilateral systems grounded in the oneness of humanity.

Mr. Benedetti noted that the capacities such contributions require, at every level, are first developed close to home.

“No matter how big an initiative, participation in the life of society is born at the local level,” he said.

“The BIC is learning to articulate this contribution from the experience of thousands of young people who are addressing the challenges of their own realities,” Mr. Benedetti added. “The capacities they develop—understanding their own reality, grasping the forces at work in society, and bringing different people together—are the same ones the continent needs.”

The statement, which can be viewed here, builds on the ongoing efforts of the BIC to contribute to the discourse on the part that young people play in the advancement of society.