Social participation of youth through volunteering: Case study of Centre for Peace Studies in Zagreb

Abstract

Centre for Peace Studies (CPS) ( Centar za mirovne studije – CMS) falls under the broader corpus of examples of youth activation where organisation has used its work to highlight the existence of a ‘critical mass’ among youth in Croatia. This ethnographic research deals with social activism through attempts to make up for (according to the actors) inefficient state care for marginalised groups, in this specific case migrants. Participatory observation method and semi-structured interviews provided us with an in-depth insight into the activities of the organisation, but also into the specific motives, values and norms of young people gathered around the organisation. The basic research questions refer to the specific sets of motives of young people involved in volunteering and their attitude towards their own culture and cultural heritage as an indicator of the strategy of constructing their own identity and attitudes towards the ‘other’.