Civic participation frames in living environment: The discourse of youths in difficulty
Responding to their mission or to a vogue of participation, many Quebec youth organizations, whether institutional or community based, have set up mechanisms to support participation processes for youth in difficulty. Based on the results of three qualitative research in youth protection centers and community organizations, we examine the question of how young people in difficulty perceive and appropriate these spaces of participation. Based on the discourse of young people involved in these spaces of participation and based on the frame analysis, this article shows that the approaches of citizenship in the living environment have the peculiarity of being both an objective and an intervention process. The meaning that the youth in difficulty give to their participation is revealed in their perceptions of the spaces of participation in living environments. The roles they develop are based on a work of framing process which rely on the continuity of the intervention; the meaningful relationships; and the democratic practices. Despite the limitations of this participation, young people feel they develop skills and the feeling of being an actor through the organizational context of mobilization in living environments and the framing process carried out daily by the participants.