💡 WP8 Report – Youth and the Affective Dimension of the Representative Disconnect | Brussels, Belgium | January 30, 2024 🇧🇪

As part of the EU Horizon REDIRECT project, Work Package 8 (WP8) investigates the affective dimension of the representative disconnect, focusing in particular on the perspectives of young citizens and young politicians.

Building on the project’s framework of intermediation, governance, and affective disconnections, this deliverable explores how emotions, beliefs, and lived experiences shape youth’s relationship with representative democracy.

🎯 Objectives of WP8:

  • Identify alignments and misalignments between established discourses on representation and lived experiences of citizens and politicians

  • Diagnose the causes and nature of affective disconnect across the citizen–politician spectrum

  • Conceptualise the affective dimension and identify possible pathways for reconnection

👥 Youth are central to this inquiry: not only do they reflect changing political attitudes, but their perspectives also highlight future challenges and opportunities for democratic legitimacy.

This report presents Task 8.2, which piloted youth focus groups in Brussels and Krakow, jointly designed and conducted by Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB) and Jagiellonian University Krakow. These pilots, grounded in expertise on focus group methodology, provide insights to refine protocols for wider application across Europe.

🌍 By situating young people’s experiences within the wider ecology of democratic politics, the study sheds light on how affective disconnections emerge and on the solutions or “redirect” strategies that young people themselves envision.

📍 Location: Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium

📅 Date: January 30, 2024

🤝 Partner: Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB)

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