Start of the YOPOW Project

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We are thrilled to announce that the YOPOW project has officially kicked off! Young People and Political Power is a new research project investigating why so many young people feel that politics is not for them.

We are thrilled to announce that the YOPOW project has officially launched! Funded by the European Research Council (ERC), YOPOW is based at Aarhus University and runs across multiple European countries. The project sets out to understand why politics and political leadership are unappealing to many groups of young people.

Our starting point is that this feeling does not come out of nowhere. From school textbooks to children’s news to the politicians that pop up on young people’s social media feeds, society sends constant messages about who is fit for political power. YOPOW asks: what are those messages, what do young people actually believe about power, and what happens when they step into political spaces themselves?

Over the coming years, the project will build a unique database of political messages directed at young people, conduct in-depth interviews with children and youth, and follow politically active young people as they navigate youth political environments.

We are excited to get started and look forward to sharing our findings along the way. Stay tuned for updates, and feel free to reach out if you want to know more!

Lisa Herbig | YOPOW

Start of the YOPOW Project