Citizen Social Science brings together social science researchers and citizens focusing on social issues, social phenomena, and the social dimensions of the world while applying and integrating social science methodologies and theories in their collaborative research efforts. These characteristics influence, for example, the focus and management of the project, the role of the researchers and the citizens, the participatory work, and ethical concerns. There are many handbooks and guidelines for conducting citizen science, but mostly within natural sciences. Yet, there are few handbooks detailing hands-on citizen social science with young people, and focusing on co-creative qualitative or mixed-methods approaches. This handbook, and its toolkit, build on the experiences from the H2020 YouCount project (2021-2023) and represent a unique contribution to the field of citizen social science. It is, overall, an exercise on social science communication that can be useful to a wide array of publics: practitioners, academics, policymakers, youth organisations and anyone interested in citizen social science as a way of creating a future shaped by more inclusive, participatory research and social innovation.

You can take a look through the YouCount Handbook here: 

Citizen Social Science brings together social science researchers and citizens focusing on social issues, social phenomena and the social dimensions of the world, while applying and integrating social science methodologies and theories in their collaborative research efforts. These characteristics influence, for example, the focus and management of the project, the role of the researchers and the citizens, the participatory work, and ethical concerns. There are many handbooks and guidelines for conducting citizen science, but mostly within natural sciences. Yet, there are few handbooks detailing hands-on citizen social science with young people, and focusing on co-creative qualitative or mixed-methods approaches. This handbook, and its toolkit, build on the experiences from the H2020 YouCount project (2021-2023) and represent a unique contribution to the field of citizen social science. It is, overall, an exercise on social science communication that can be useful to a wide array of publics: practitioners, academics, policymakers, youth organisations and anyone interested in citizen social science as a way of creating a future shaped by more inclusive, participatory research and social innovation.

The aim of this deliverable is to contribute to the evolving understanding of the costs and benefits associated with Citizen Science in general and Youth Citizen Social Science in particular through a critical analysis of the YouCount project findings. This critical examination is grounded in a comprehensive multi-assessment framework that collects evidence of the scientific, social, democratic, economic and individual dimensions of YouCount.

This policy brief shares the voices of young citizen social scientists (aged 13-29 years) who tookThis policy brief shares the voices of young citizen social scientists (aged 13-29 years) who tookpart in the EU funded YouCount project. They talk about what social inclusion means for them and how toachieve youth social inclusion and suggest ways to make it happen. Building on the findings from You-Count’s research, the brief also summarises potential positive drivers for social inclusion and the impactsof using a youth citizen social science to address social inclusion. It also includes a series of recommendationsfor policymakers who want to embrace youth perspectives for youth social inclusion through theadoption of youth citizen social science.

Welcome to the YouCount toolkit!

Here, you will find various tools that researchers in the YouCount project have developed and used with young citizen social scientists. The tools are organized according to the House of Youth Citizen Social Science - a framework for thinking, planning, and doing citizen social science research projects with a co-creative approach.

Click on the hearts to download the tools. 

The groundfloor
How can you ensure that theHow can you ensure that thesocial and relational aspects of teamwork are in place? In thissection, you will find tools fortraining and building theground floor.

The first floor
How can you do participatory data collection with youth? In this section, you will find tools for the three approaches ‘the survey mindset,’ ‘the listening mode,’ and ‘the observational gaze’.

The second floor
How do we reach for social innovations and policy change with youth? In this section you will find tools for working collaboratively to make sense of findings and to develop ideas together.

This deliverable includes the planning, conduction and reporting from the end conference of the H2020 EU YouCount Project that was held from December 4- 5 2023, in Brussels (hybrid).

This deliverable describes what hands-on Youth Citizen Social Science (Y-CSS) looks like in practice in the YouCount multiple case study. Using data primarily from individual case reports from consortium partners, it compares and contrasts the experience of implementation across the 10 cases of Y-CSS. It builds upon the conceptual and methodological frameworks in D1.2 and D1.3, the ethical framework and work securing ethical approvals established in D2.1, the D1.5 Report from ECSA workshops, and the strategy for evaluating Y-CSS. A summary of ethical challenges and how these were dealt with will be elaborated upon in the upcoming D6.5 Ethics Final Report by January 31, 2024.

This report will include impact assessments of the YouCount Project, and youth citizen social science (Y-CSS) based on the chosen basket of indicators, including SDG and MoRRI indicators.This report will include impact assessments of the YouCount Project, and youth citizen social science (Y-CSS) based on the chosen basket of indicators, including SDG and MoRRI indicators.The vison of YouCount is twofold, addressing and combining both the scientific and societal needs of our time. The scientific vision of YouCount is to strengthen the transformative and participatory aspects of CS and social science, by enabling citizen participation in all facets, reaching out for a more egalitarian way of conducting science. The societal vision of YouCount is to contribute to create inclusive and innovative societies for European youths and to empower them in promoting active citizenship and a just and equitable future, particularly for youths with disadvantages.

D4.1 Meta Report describes the YouCount evaluation methodology, analysis and outcomes. It is rooted in WP4 – this is to be distinguished from the impact dimension, which is also part of WP4, but will be reported by Lorenz and colleagues (2023). More specifically it addresses Task 4.1 (development of the evaluation framework) to Task 4.9 (external evaluation), including steps like data collection, data analysis, and continuous process evaluation aspects.

The main focus lays in the theoretical foundations of the YouCount evaluation, the implementation and adaptions, the analysis and the outcomes thereof. Lessons learned and suggestions for future projects are discussed.

The Report comprises 7 parts: (1) an introductory overview of YouCount’s aims and intentions in evaluating the multiple case study with 10 cases in 9 countries doing social inclusion Y-CSS; (2) the theoretical background of the original evaluation framework as outlined by Juricek and colleagues (2021); (3) the methodological design within the project context; (4) the implementation as adapted for the YouCount context, including derivations and later adaptations; (5) the actual outcomes and results of the analysis of the evaluation data; (6) the lessons learned as derived from the overall evaluation process; and finally (7) the conclusion remarks.

The main target group for this Deliverable are fellow CSS scientists, practitioners, but also lay people genuinely interested in the topic of how to evaluate a multi-country social inclusion Y-CSS project with mixed-methods approaches.

This deliverable includes a presentation of the social inclusion cross-case analysis of the 10 YouCount hands-on citizen social science (CSS) case studies. It explores three key empirical research questions: What are young people’s views on the critical issues for social inclusion? What are young people’s experiences with opportunities for social inclusion in their daily lives? What new means and policies to increase social inclusion are needed?This deliverable includes a presentation of the social inclusion cross-case analysis of the 10 YouCount hands-on citizen social science (CSS) case studies. It explores three key empirical research questions: What are young people’s views on the critical issues for social inclusion? What are young people’s experiences with opportunities for social inclusion in their daily lives? What new means and policies to increase social inclusion are needed?The primary source of data for the analysis presented in this deliverable is the final case study reports, based on a common template structuring the analytical dimensions, written by the professional researchers working on the 10 YouCount case studies. In addition, some preliminary findings from the YouCount App data analysis are also integrated.