Improving the quality of life of disadvantaged young people in Europe

In this chapter, the key messages and policy implications arising from the chapters making up this volume are drawn together. The research demonstrates the need to increase the development of young people’s agency and voice, and to put it at the centre of policy design, implementation and evaluation. Currently young people often feel undermined by not being given the opportunity to be listened to by policy-makers. This volume highlights the value provided by the Capability Approach in offering a framework for addressing youth inequalities that goes beyond current European and national level approaches. The Capability Approach takes a more encompassing view of what is entailed by youth empowerment and participation in society. By applying the Capability Approach, this volume reveals the necessity to develop a more holistic youth policy in which the individual context, as well as the processes and outcomes of youth programmes, are taken into consideration without neglecting heterogeneous values and life aspirations. The goal is to allow genuine individual agency and promote participation and voice instead of imposing predefined goals, and working together among young people and among different levels of administration.