Klaipėdos universitetas

The issue of active citizenship is very topical in modern society. Particular attention is paid to the promotion of civic activity by youth and the creation of positive experience. National surveys show increasing engagement among young people in various activities, but they also show that young people are more likely to notice and see the threats posed by active citizenship. Therefore, the article aims to research the attitude of young people towards an assessment of active citizenship in society, the threats and benefits it brings. Qualitative research methods were used to gain a detailed and comprehensive understanding of attitudes: analysis of literature, focus group discussion, and content analysis. In the discussions, informants mentioned most often that citizenship is viewed both positively and negatively (especially in relation to political activity). The study revealed that when discussing the risks of active citizenship, young people mentioned most often the physical threats to the health and life of an active citizen when performing compulsory or voluntary military service. Other possible active citizenship threats indicated were: provoking intolerance and encouraging confrontation between different groups. The discussion also identified the perceived and noticed benefits of active citizenship to young people. Those most frequently mentioned by the informants were: helping groups or professions in difficulty; creating a better environment through basic putting in order and doing one’s duty. Some of the statements by the informants show that examples of active citizenship create a sense of community and tolerance, as well as being ‘contagious’ (setting an example) and encouraging young people to join various organisations.

The subject of the research is the entrepreneurial potential of young people in the development of rural green tourism in Ukraine. Studies of trends in the rural labour market in terms of modernisation of the agrarian sector and the impact of world trends in transforming the role of rural territories have been taken into account. The development of entrepreneurship in the agricultural and industrial complex, including rural tourism, is one way of solving the youth employment problem. In the study, the authors rely on an assessment of the potential of rural green tourism in Ukraine, which is significant. The main directions of youth entrepreneurship in rural green tourism are identified. The article focuses on promoting the realisation of the potential of youth in rural green tourism businesses. Specific examples show features of labour motivation and highlight opportunities for its increase in entrepreneurship in rural green tourism. It is proposed to create conditions for the activation of youth entrepreneurship in rural green tourism. The authors come to the conclusion that modern youth, as a specific socio-demographic group, are a reserve for the multiplication of the labour force in the agricultural sector, and are a strategic resource for the development of rural areas through entrepreneurship in various fields, including rural green tourism.

In today’s globalized world, national identity and its transformation becomes an important object of research, most of which are discussing by philosophers, historians, journalists, sociologists, geographers, demographers. The identity or perception of identity is changing constantly. This type of research requires an interdisciplinary approach, an application of spatial and social dimensions in order to analyse the characteristics of identity in evolving economic, political and geopolitical conditions.

This study presents an internationally (cross-border) representative picture of the school environment, atmosphere and action taken by schools aiming at the involvement of students in their actions. The study was conducted within the framework of the CaSYPoT project (Capacity Building for Strategic Youth Policy and Transnational Cooperation) under the Interreg South Baltic Programme 2014-2020 (Project No STHB.05.01.00-SE-0024/15). The main aim of the CaSYPot project was to encourage young people to get involved in local democracy, and to present youth as a resource in the development of society. Furthermore, for the design and implementation of the southern Baltic youth strategy, it is important to gain an insight into the current situation regarding the environment in schools. One section of this survey was addressed to the situation of youth in schools. The international survey for the CaSYPoT project was conducted among 1,593 students, in six towns in the southern Baltic region, in Sweden, Poland, Russia and Lithuania, from April to June 2017. The project partner’s towns carried out a survey on teenagers aged 16 to 19, identifying their needs and problems in school, and providing comparable data. The questionnaire contained questions addressing young people’s well-being and atmosphere of safety, the climate at school, and their experience in getting involved in the work of the school and their influence on decision making. To sum up, the study describes the current situation in schools, which is essential for the development and evaluation of future policies and actions. The survey covers a wide range of student opinions on school, and begins with a summary of the key findings drawn from an analysis of the survey, and strategic recommendations for the future.

The aim of the article is to give a social portrait of Lithuanian youth in the context of youth policy, and to consider such unsettled segments as unemployment, emigration (migration), the attitude towards family, social participation in societal possibilities, and the strengthening of intergenerational solidarity. These problematic segments cause the social exclusion of young people, thus requiring an appropriate strategy for training professionals who work with young people and who can develop models for the positive (skilful) socialisation of young people. The article evaluates Lithuanian and European youth policy guidelines and success in solving problems, as well as the response to public expectations regarding participation in future life. It provides an analysis of existing feasibility studies that reveal the current situation, and insights into the question. The results obtained foster the formulation of a strategy for training social professionals focused on youth work. The article concentrates on a new European Union programme, the ‘European Solidarity Corps’, which aims to give young people opportunities to contribute to local and global problem-solving within the framework of personal and professional career design for youth. It has been prepared within the framework of the project ‘Social Professions for Youth Education in the Context of European Solidarity’*, with the participation of Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish and Swedish universities that deliver programmes for training social professionals.

This article examines the attitudeof young people of age 18 to 30 from Lithuania, Latvia, Finland and Norway towards the national costume. The aim of this article is to analyze and determine how national costume is appreciated by the youth of countries mentioned before. The article briefly presents the preconditions for the emergence and creation of a nationalcostume; it analyzes what kind of information is lacking about national costume. The research was made in 2017-2018. Information was provided by 156 respondents. In conclusion, the worst situation is is between Finnish youth and the deepest traditions of costume‘s wearing has Norway. The results of Lithuanians reveal that national costume is not very important tradition, Latvians show the growing interest in the costume.

This study is focused on social media in China and its influence on youth civic participation. In China, a trend of increasing usage of social media platforms has been observed, in particularly WeChat, Weibo, QQ, Douyin, and Meitu. The aim of this research is to explore the link between the use of these social media platforms and civic participation among the youth in China, specifically, whether social media platforms have positive effect on encouragement of youth civic participation. The use of social media platforms is measured by the number of social media accounts, the duration of usage of these accounts, and the average time spending on social media accounts weekly, while civic participation through social media is to measure both civic participation activities and its link with the social media usage.

Until the 2015 elections, youth policy in Poland was treated as a separate domain. There is no uniform legal basis concerned with the matters of young people. Youth rights are dealt with in several articles of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland as well as a number of Acts: on Public Administration Branches, on the Education System, on Higher Education, on Employment Promotion and Labour Market Institutions, on NFZ General Health Insurance, on Combating Domestic Violence, on Social Employment, on Public Benefit Organisations and Voluntary Service, along with the Labour Code and certain government regulations. The first consistent document concerned with youth issues was the National strategy for young people for 2003–2014, adopted in 2003. Thereafter, the matters of youth policy were discussed in the report entitled Youth 2011, the document Poland 2030 – Third Wave of Modernity, the Long-Term National Development Strategy, and the Government Program for Social Activity of Youth for the years 2015–2016. Following the 2015 parliamentary elections, youth issues were given a lower priority. In the election manifesto of PIS (Law and Justice party), much attention was devoted to family policy, with youth policy being regarded as part thereof. Consequently, on 13 February 2018, the Family, Senior and Social Policy Committee of the Senate of the Republic of Poland adopted a Resolution on “Integrated youth policy”, presenting it as one of the areas of family policy.

The current global situation after Covid-19 presents the situation of youth in Europe as a synthesis for an international strategy of national youth policies instigated by the Council of Europe ‘Supporting Young People in Europe: Principles, Policy, Practice’. We look at youth policy as an initiative within other policy areas, which affect not only young people but all of society. The article presents the social and demographic situation of youth in the EU, and the state of play regarding welfare and poverty, education, employment, family issues, health and behaviour, and the future of youth in the EU.

In the last ten years the evident changes of settlement patterns through suburban growth near to capital city of Latvia occurred. Increase of distance between home and routine activity places as well as changes of public transport and rapid increase of car ownership initiated significant changes in commuting patterns of inhabitants living outside of Riga. Although the commuting from suburban area to Riga is recently broadly studied, however these researches focused primarily on able-bodied population leaving behind school-age children and young people. The aim of this study is to analyse commuting patterns of young people aged 12 to 17 moving from outskirts of Riga to school located in Riga. This study reveal commuting patterns in Riga agglomeration through wide analysis of spatial patterns of youth commuting, examination of motives and factors affecting transportation mode choice for school trips and commuting times. Findings of the research show existing correlation between location of young people’s place of residence in terms of distance from core city and proportion of them commuting to Riga. Likewise several socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics of young people have influence on school trip transportation mode choice.