ABSTRACT
The current generation of European youth is coming of age in the European Union. Compared to the generation of their parents and grandparents, this generation has been afforded new opportunities of travel and employment that transcends the borders of nations. How is this new reality experienced by youth from different European nations and from different social classes? Do younger generations feel more of a connection to their European identity, to their national identity, or to both? Such questions are addressed in the papers of this special issue, which draw data from the EU Horizon 2020 Constructing Active Citizenship with European Youth (CATCH-EyoU) project. Together these studies suggest that to address these questions we need to decompose who the youth are and what the historical context of their experience is. For example, youth from higher socio-economic status families living in post-communist or low wealth nations differ in their loyalties and commitment to the EU, compared to their counterparts. The papers in this special issue reveal important insights as well as gaps in the scholarship concerning youth active citizenship at the European level.
