EWS YOUTH ORGANISATIONS AND THE TRANSMISSION OF EUROPEAN CULTURAL HERITAGE AND EUROPEANISATION IN NORTHERN AND WESTERN EUROPE 1918-2018

By the early twentieth century, youth organisations had become a common feature in many European societies. Some of them were local or national; some developed international networks and others were national branches of international or transnational orga nisations. We propose to investigate through archival research and oral history, within two specific geographic regions, the tangible impact of these organisations on the transmission of concepts of European cultural heritage and Europeanisation. The proj ect will examine how youth encounters at an international level facilitated and developed sustained engagement with the European project. A secondary aim of the project will involve interacting with representatives of European youth organisations to discu ss the contemporary relevance of the main conclusions. In this way, the project will contribute to an understanding of how youth organisations and movements have in the past and can in the future contribute to Europeanisation and an increased sense of a s hared cultural heritage.