The political cultures of young people: an uncertain and unstable combinatorial logic

Addressing the sterile debate on the question of ‘youth de-politicisation’ requires taking into account the new structural and cultural conditions of the relationship between young people and politics. We must also seek to understand the multiple meanings that politics today has for young people by linking their logics of politicisation with the social dynamics of youth in modern society. In this paper, I present the results of qualitative analysis of focus group and interviews with approximately 100 young Spaniards. I discuss the main structures of meaning present in their discourses, and how young people combine and employ these meanings to orientate themselves in the public sphere. Phenomena such as political individualisation, the sudden incursions of youth into the public sphere or the intermittent and provisional presence and distancing from institutional politics are better understood from the perspective proposed here.