Abstract
The PIDOP project investigated political and civic participation and engagement in nine European countries – Belgium, Czech Republic, England, Germany, Italy, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Sweden and Turkey. The research focused especially on participation by youth, women, minorities and migrants, four groups that have traditionally been viewed as being at risk of disengagement. The research involved: the analysis of EU, national, regional and NGO policies on political and civic participation by youth, women, minorities and migrants; the development of new political theories of participation; the development of new psychological theories of participation; the modelling of data from existing surveys on political and civic participation; the collection and analysis of new data on political and civic participation; the integration of political and psychological theories of participation; and the development of recommendations for policy, practice and intervention for enhancing levels of participation among youth, women, minorities and migrants. The research reported in this document was supported by a grant received from the European Commission 7th Framework Programme, FP7-SSH-2007-1, Grant Agreement no: 225282, Processes Influencing Democratic Ownership and Participation (PIDOP), which was awarded to the University of Surrey (UK), University of Liège (Belgium), Masaryk University (Czech Republic), University of Jena (Germany), University of Bologna (Italy), University of Porto (Portugal), Örebro University (Sweden), Ankara University (Turkey) and Queen’s University Belfast (UK). For further information about the PIDOP project, please visit the project website: http://www.fahs.surrey.ac.uk/pidop/