Adolescents' Participation in Health: Critical Reflections at the Intersection of Anthropology and Public Health

MAS Medical Anthropology Switzerland The participation of youth in community action and governance has gained growing support by practitioners and policy makers over the past decades. (...) Anthropologists like Maia Green regard the discourse of participation as the “new orthodoxy in development circles”. However, clear and commonly shared definitions of participatory development are missing. Interestingly discourses around participation are mainly not shaped by those affected but by “experts” who drive the development agenda. The same can be observed in youth projects where young people are often mere recipients but not active agents. Doing so, neglects their creative capacities and reduces them to “risk takers” (e.g., those that smoke or take drugs) or “victims” (e.g. girls that get pregnant). In the light of the above, the MAS Colloquium 2016 aims at critically reflecting on participation of a rapidly growing group, adolescents, in health interventions. Examples from both, the global North as well as South will be presented and reflected on from an anthropological as well as public health perspective. The following questions will be tackled: how and by whom is “participation of young people” defined? Who can participate and why? How is the agency of young people involved influenced and shaped through participatory processes? Pre-registration (important) by 18.11.2016: colloquium2016@medicalanthropology.ch