Executive summary
This working paper provides a conceptual foundation for the Nordregio-led project “Young and Rooted – Strengthening Youth Participation in Nordic Regions” (2026–2027), funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers. It builds on the outcomes of the 2023 Nordic Rural Youth Panel, which identified gaps in impactful participation for young people living outside major urban centres across the Nordic Region (Wøien Meijer et al., 2023).
The report pursues three objectives:
- To define what constitutes impactful youth participation in policymaking
- To identify how youth participation is institutionalised across the Nordic countries
- To provide an analytical framework for understanding the barriers to and opportunities for strengthening rural youth participation.
This overview serves both as a conceptual contribution to and a foundation for the next stages of the “Young and Rooted” project, in which these insights will be translated into practical approaches to expanding impactful youth participation across the Nordic Region.
