Engagement with Young People’s Cultural Practices: Cluster Analysis of Ethnography with Young People

This report contains an analysis of the cluster of ethnographic studies carried out within the CHIEF project of the H2020 programme. The analysis uses fieldwork data obtained in five youth groups of four project consortium countries: the Dhol Tasha Pathak group (India); the Old Believers’ youth group (Latvia); the Riga Traditional Dance Club (Latvia); the Meetings group (Slovakia); and the Nightingales (Turkey). What these youth groups have in common is engaging with ‘traditional’ culture: the Dhol Tasha Pathak performers use traditional Indian drums; the Old Believers’ youth is a religious and ethnic (Russian) minority group; the Riga Traditional Dance Club is a dancers’ community; the Meetings group is a Catholic youth group; and the Nightingales is a musical band comprising pious young Muslim women. The research questions raised in this report are: what are the meanings attached to cultural practices?; in what way do encounters and/or interactions with other cultures occur?; how do young people and their cultural practices relate or differ from the existing cultural offer and heritage discourses?; and how is engaging with traditional culture linked to cultural socialisation? The data analysis from ethnographic studies of the CHIEF project, obtained in youth groups related to the traditional culture, led to the conclusion the environment and agents, whose influence is both similar and different across cultures, influence cultural socialisation. Familiarisation with the traditional culture in India, Latvia, Slovakia and Turkey occurs in different socio-political contexts. The various perspectives highlighted during the interviews reveal the plurality of approaches and roles young people have in discussing the existing cultural paradigms to create varied notions of culture and heritage.