Contemporary politics is increasingly performative, apolitical, anti-political or unpolitical. Political choices are framed as technical, inevitable, or simply 'common sense'. This depoliticisation strips young people of their voice and of healthy political debate. It breeds frustration and cynicism. Right-wing narratives, by contrast, reintroduce conflict, identity, and agency, reshaping how younger generations imagine, learn, and enact citizenship. This Workshop integrates theories of depoliticisation and value realignment to develop a comparative agenda on legitimacy, participation, accountability, and democratic education. It explores how depoliticisation, distrust, and new forms of mobilisation remake democracy as youth renegotiate belonging and identity.
While populism and polarisation dominate current research, depoliticisation remains underexplored. Studies on unpolitics, antipolitics, and apolitical withdrawal highlight political crises, institutional distrust, and elite hostility, but scholarship often treats them separately. There is an urgent need for an integrated framework linking depoliticisation to democratic participation, value shifts, and – specifically – youth citizenship.
At the same time, scholars observe a puzzling conservative turn among younger generations in Europe and the US. Rather than leading progressive change, many young people — especially young men — are increasingly drawn to conservative and radical-right movements, challenging assumptions about their democratic roles. This raises pressing questions: how do young people learn, perform, and contest citizenship when politics is framed as technical inevitability or 'common sense'? Is this shift a backlash against depoliticisation? Does it stem from cultural insecurity, gendered socialisation, or economic precarity? Do populist unpolitics – such as war, conspiracy, and religion – offer youth a sense of clarity and belonging denied by technocratic neutrality?
This Workshop offers a vital space to connect conceptual debates on depoliticisation and democratic participation, empirical puzzles like youth conservatism, intergenerational divides, digital mobilisation, new modes of participation, and democratic education, and normative issues around representation, legitimacy, and accountability. By bridging political theory, youth studies, communication, and comparative politics, it aims to develop a coherent research agenda explaining why a generation expected to drive progress is instead turning rightward — and what this means for the future of citizenship and democracy.
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1: Is depoliticisation changing how young people learn/imagine/practice citizenship compared to older generations?
2: Why are young men drawn to right-wing views, and how do their views differ from young women’s?
3: How do unpolitics/antipolitics offer youth alternative ways to belong and engage democratically?
4: How does depoliticisation reshape youth political socialisation, education, and trust in institutions?
5: What interventions can restore political contest and help youth voice and mobilise democratically?
1: Bridging depoliticisation, unpolitics, antipolitics, and youth citizenship concepts.
2: Intergenerational differences in depoliticisation and their impact on democratic participation.
3: How depoliticisation shapes youth civic attitudes and participation.
4: Consequences of the conservative youth turn for representation, legitimacy, and democracy’s future.
5: Youth movements, influencers, and digital platforms as drivers of citizenship and mobilisation.
6: Case studies on the conservative youth turn and its impact on democratic education.
7: Key policy areas for youth (education, gender, climate, security) as contested spaces.
8: The role of schools and civic education amid depoliticisation and distrust.
