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The Pursuit Of Civic Engagement: Youth Civic Engagement And The Role Of Higher Education, Aideen Mccormack, Aiden Carthy, Cormac Doran

Stream 6: Global University

Putnam (2000) argues that, in recent years, there has been a steady decline of social capital and civic engagement in western societies. However, arguments claiming a 'crisis' of civic engagement have also been met with fierce academic disagreement, leading to a strongly contested debate as to whether civic engagement is in decline or simply evolving. Using a mixed methods approach, this research sought to explore youth civic engagement among the students of the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown aged 18 to 25. Preliminary quantitative results provide evidence of both disengagement with traditional routes and a re-routing of engagement towards more lifestyle …