ABSTRACT
This chapter examines young people’s participation in institutionalised settings as accumulation of capital forms. It seeks to decipher the enigmatic concept of ‘participation’ by turning the analytical lens towards young people’s practices and active involvement in participatory contexts which are all characterised by varying degrees of institutionalisation. The chapter explores ‘styles’ as modes of participation developed by groups of young people, resulting from a continuous interplay between social structure and individual as well as collective processes of meaning-making. It focuses on how young people re-signify volunteering and its established habitus of participation according to the different forms and levels of capital they possess and accumulate during their experience. The chapter focuses on processes of participation in institutional settings, accumulation of capital forms and re-signification of practices. The forum is the main formal and political forum of youth participation in Gothenburg.
