Oletettu alueellisuus, kuviteltu osallisuus : tilalliset sidokset julkishallinnon lapsi- ja nuorisopoliittisessa retoriikassa

Participation is one of the current trend concepts that informs policy making and administrative practice in Western democracies, including Finland. As a result of various legislative changes and policy strategies, the municipalities, national institutions such as the school, and many governmental actors are nowadays obliged to forward participation by hearing and engaging people. While widely acknowledged and used, the concept of participation involves certain ambiguities. In this article, we discuss some of these in the context of Finnish child and youth policy and the related administrative practices, where locality is naturalized as a basis for youthful participation and communal commitment. By calling into question the discrepancy between the spatial ties of participation as imagined at the strategic level and as practiced by children and young people in their everyday lives, we criticize the prevailing policy and administrative understandings as too rigid and narrow