‘Politics are bollocks’: Youth, politics and activism in contemporary Europe’

This introductory article introduces the MYPLACE (Memory, Youth, Political Legacy and Civic Engagement) project the findings of which articles in this volume are based. MYPLACE maps the relationship between political heritage, current levels and forms of civic and political engagement of young people in Europe, and their potential receptivity to radical and populist political agendas. In this introductory article, the implications of the project’s three-way gaze - to the past, present and future - are explored by addressing three questions that run through contributions to this volume: What is politics, and why do many young people say they hate it? How does the past shape the present and the future? Are young people receptive to populist and radical right political agendas? The article outlines the distinctive case study approach to the project and its integrated mixed method design, detailing the common survey, interview, focus group and ethnographic research instruments employed in the project and the principles of analysis followed for the analysis of survey and qualitative research data.