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Beyond ‘Left’ and ‘Right’? The Role of Culture and Context in Young People’s Understanding of Ideology

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Understanding Youth Participation Across Europe

Abstract

In this chapter, new comparative data from the MYPLACE survey is drawn on to explore how different ideological attitudes are linked to self-placement on the conventional 0–10 left–right political scale and, thus, shed light on what the concept of ‘left’ and ‘right’ means to young people today. It is found that the ideological beliefs most salient for young people when they place themselves on the left–right scale vary depending on the historical, political and cultural context. Although the majority are able to describe themselves in terms of ‘left’ and ‘right’, the meaning they attach to these notions differs from country to country. Accordingly, any cross-national analysis of ‘left’ and ‘right’ is prone to misleading results, if the national context is not taken into account.

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Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges financial support from the National Research Programme, SUSTINNO.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Social Sciences, Advanced Social and Political Research Institute, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia

    Inta Mieriņa

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  1. Inta Mieriņa
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Correspondence to Inta Mieriņa .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Hilary Pilkington

  2. Department of Sociology, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Gary Pollock

  3. Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia

    Renata Franc

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Mieriņa, I. (2018). Beyond ‘Left’ and ‘Right’? The Role of Culture and Context in Young People’s Understanding of Ideology. In: Pilkington, H., Pollock, G., Franc, R. (eds) Understanding Youth Participation Across Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59007-7_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59007-7_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-59006-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-59007-7

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