Time frame: September-December 2019
Following the comprehensive analysis of the youth opinion] (tracked through face-to-face semi-qualitative surveys, focus groups with Q Sort and group interviews, and also through the overview of the national polls by leading national and international social research groups) and media content analysis, E-YOUTH tracks opinion of Ukraine-EU relations – and on Ukraine-Baltics relations in this context – among youth leaders in Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Elite perceptions and attitudes of foreign counterparts (including the EU) are argued by scholars to be one of the key inputs into a foreign policy system. The identification of the patterns of perceptions at the youth leaders level is used by E-YOUTH to enhance the understanding of the conduct of foreign policy – by the EU, the three EU Baltic Member States and Ukraine.
E-YOUTH undertakes a series of youth leaders face-to-face in-depth interviews with youth leaders from political, civil society and media – opinion-forming cohorts.
- Youth leader in political sphere: primary focus on current members of national parliaments representing different parties (a secondary focus on government officials and servants) dealing with youth affairs
- Youth leaders in the civil society sphere: representatives of various non-government organizations and non-state-actors (both of international and local status) dealing with youth affairs
- Youth leaders in the media sector: editors, editors-in-chief, television news broadcast producers and correspondents
Importantly, all interviews take place only after being approved by Human Ethics Committees and follow a strict protocol in collecting, storing and analysing data and disseminating results.
For the main results of this research task, see the two Special Issues published by the E-YOUTH team:
Chaban, P. Heinrichs, A. Miskimmon, B. O’Loughlin (eds.) (2021) Special Issue ‘Reimagining Europe: Youth narratives and perceptions. in Ukraine and the Baltic States”: Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post–Soviet Democratization, 29(4).
Chaban, H. Mondry, E. Pavlov (eds.) (2019-2020) Special Issue “The EU Baltic States, Russia and Ukraine: Mutual narratives and perceptions”, New Zealand Slavonic Journal, 53-54. https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/arts/schools-and-departments/russian/nz-slavonic-journal/accordion/latest-issue/nzsj53-54.pdf