Youth political participation: conceptions of young people participating in six groups of Costa Rica

Abstract

This article recovers the main results obtained through qualitative research developed as final graduation work to opt for the degree in Social Work from the Sede de Occidente, University of Costa Rica; which is called: Youth political participation: an exploratory study with affected youth groups in the central district of the San Ramón canton, Alajuela, in the period 2010-2011. Specifically, attention is focused on exposing the conceptions that young people from six youth groups have about youth political participation, with the purpose of understanding where they start from to interpret reality and develop their collective actions in Costa Rican social formation. It is concluded that both alternative and traditional positions coexist when defining the concept of political participation. In addition, it is affirmed that external factors such as school, family, peer relationship and the characteristics of the group in which they participate will influence the world views of each young person and the participatory actions that are developed.