Political Symbols of the Youth

Political Symbols of the Youth – Usage and Meaning
This empirical sociological study deals with the usage of symbols by organized groups of young people and the meaning of these symbols for the groups and the individuals within the groups. Thereby the research team refers to youths, which define themselves as clearly political, but are not necessarily members of merely political groups. This means that the majority of society often does not know these symbols, on the contrary to flags or emblems of regular political entities for example. The symbols in the study derive from the specific Lebenswelten (“life worlds”) of the youths. Therefore, we choose a qualitative approach with the method of the Participatory Photo Interview and analyse the interviews with a slightly adapted version of Qualitative Content Analysis.

Usage and Meaning — an Empiric Sociological Study
The research team refers to youths, which define themselves as clearly political, but are not necessarily members of merely political groups. It shows common aspect and differences between young people who are rather left or right wing. We choose a qualitative approach with the method of
the Participatory Photo Interview and analysed the interviews with a slightly adapted version of Qualitative Content Analysis. Fotos and Interviews, but also the experience of the research team in accessing the political youth-groups show further insight on the research field. On the one hand we had contact to Burschenschaften (nationalist student corporations) and a loose community of radical
right youths, and on the other to a left/anarchistic cultural network, as well as a leftist youth organisation funded by a parliament-party. The main outcome is the difference in openness to the environment and the research, the right groups being much more distrustful and hard to access than the leftish ones. Our theory inductively developed through the project: symbols shown and used by left-wing youths can be defined as dynamic, actualising, pragmatic and individualistic, while symbols of right-wing youths are of a more traditionalistic, uniforming and hierarchical character. Beside these clear differences, there are symbols and rituals in both political self-under standings, which are
only different in their manifest appearance, but have the same latent functions and meanings for the groups, e.g. symbols that are reserved for actualising the cohesion of the groups.