A transactional and action-oriented methodological approach to young people’s political socialisation

Abstract

The research field of (young people’s) political socialisation faces methodological challenges in (1) handling individual agency and political culture as simultaneous and mutual, (2) handling the relation between continuity and change and (3) observing the process of meaning-making in political socialisation. The aim of the article is to theoretically argue, present and analytically demonstrate a methodological approach for the study of young people’s political socialisation in action, in the meaning-making process of being and becoming (a) political (subject). Within the research framework of situational political socialisation, a transactional methodological approach is contributed and analytically demonstrated with an empirical analysis of political norms in action. Political socialisation is handled as an observable communication and meaning-making practice, thus implying a subjective, situational, relational, participation and action-oriented approach in order to counteract the risks of treating the rising generation as depoliticised objects for political fostering.