Introduction to Youth Policy - Swedish and Turkish Perspectives

The Swedish National Board for Youth Affairs and the Department of Youth Services at the Directorate for Youth and Sports in Turkey are working together in the project Youth Policy Cooperation between Turkey and Sweden between 2008 and 2010. One aim of the project is to increase knowledge of the living conditions of young people in both countries. Another aim is to demonstrate the potential of young people and increase their participation in society. The project has five components with the following themes: concepts in youth policy, knowledge of young people’s living conditions, networking for people who work with and for young people, promotion of best practices for young people on the labour market, and awareness of provided social services and rights for young people. This compendium defines various concepts that are used when discussing youth policy or young people as a group. This text is not an in-depth analysis, but rather is intended as an introduction to youth policy. This compendium is also one of the results of the youth policy cooperation project between Sweden and Turkey. Within this project, there has been a need to define the concepts mentioned above. As a result, in this text Sweden’s and Turkey’s respective views on young people and youth policy are described by people who have worked with these issues at the Swedish National Board for Youth Affairs and the Turkish General Directorate of Youth and Sports. This is followed by an article on youth policy by researcher Jonas Bjälesjö, who took part in the project.