Abstract
The YOUTH project seeks to create a comprehensive methodological framework for studying youthhood within the context of social inequality and its intersection with public social media platforms. This framework aims to understand youthhood as a constructed reality with discursive, symbolic, and material dimensions, impacting urban public spaces and their representation. The project employs action research in collaboration with NGOs to empower young people, especially in their use of digital and non-digital means to access public spaces and overcome structural disadvantages. A spring school will be organized to refine this framework and outline a new research agenda.
Outcome Summary
The YOUTH research initiation project explores how social inequality is reproduced through (non-)digital access to public spaces. Youthhood is conceptualised as a relational age category, encompassing embodied, symbolic, and material dimensions that shape the urban experiences of young people.
Building on this theoretical foundation, YOUTH developed an intersectional methodology within Urban Studies, integrating qualitative approaches from spatial research, sociology, geography, social work, and digital media studies. Through case studies conducted in Vienna, Tel Aviv, and Belo Horizonte, and in collaboration with local NGOs, the project examined how young people navigate and appropriate urban spaces using digital media. These processes give rise to hybrid, ‘vireal’ public spaces, in which digital and material dimensions are experienced simultaneously and inseparably.
A key theoretical insight emerging from the project is that public space today is experienced as both digital and material at once, particularly from the perspective of youth. This simultaneity informs the concept of vireal public space, which proved to be a productive analytical lens for investigating urban inequality through an intersectional perspective.
The project’s empirical findings are synthesised across three academic articles:
– Article 1 develops the methodological framework for intersectional urban youth research, drawing on the experiences of the three YOUTH case studies.
– Article 2 is based on a qualitative study conducted in Belo Horizonte and explores how social inequalities — particularly class, ethnicity, and gender — shape young people’s use of digital technologies and social networks in their everyday interaction with public space.
– Article 3 examines the ambivalent role of NGOs in youth-centred research, focusing on ethical and methodological challenges in transdisciplinary urban research.
A central event and experimental educational format of the project was the five-day Spring School, held in June 2024 at TU Wien, with 26 international participants from six countries. The programme combined theoretical inputs, fieldwork in Vienna, collaborative group work, and contributions related to case studies in Tel Aviv and Belo Horizonte. Topics included social media, youth participation, and inclusive urban planning. The Spring School also facilitated broad dissemination of findings via Instagram and the project website.
Toward the end of the project, significant groundwork was laid for future collaborations. A follow-up research proposal focusing on youth and care policies was submitted under the leadership of PUC Minas Gerais to the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), which is affiliated with the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI). In parallel, a new Erasmus+ Key Action 2 proposal is in preparation, aiming to strengthen European cooperation and innovation in research-led higher education. Partner institutions include universities and research centres in Cyprus, Italy, Germany, and Finland.
Key findings from YOUTH also informed a policy brief addressed to the rectorates of technical universities, advocating for a youth-oriented and socially equitable research environment in the digital age.
By bridging international urban studies, digital media, and youth participation, YOUTH provides an innovative methodological foundation for understanding contemporary youthhood. Through empirical research, pedagogical innovation, and international collaboration, the project advances knowledge at the intersection of digitalisation, public space, and social inequality — laying the groundwork for future urban studies research and policy development.