On 11–13 September 2014, an international conference entitled Negotiation, navigation, resistance – young people's agency in post-crisis reality in Europe was organised by the JU Institute of Sociology and the Youth and Generation network, which is part of the European Sociological Association.

The conference was devoted to the latest sociological research concerning the situation of young people in the times of European crisis as well as employing the concept of agency in research on the youth and adults. Participants from all over Europe were greeted by Dr Aurélie Mary, ESA Youth and Generation network coordinator, Prof. Krystyna Slany, representative of the JU Institute of Sociology, and Ms. Ewa Krzaklewska, conference coordinator.

The conference was officially opened by Prof. Alan France from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. In his speech, Prof. France stressed the influence of global transformations and economical, political and social crises on young people and their actions as well as their impact on youth policies. In this context, he emphasised the importance of structural conditions. His lecture served as an introduction for nearly thirty topical papers concerning youth studies conducted in many countries, including Great Britain, Serbia, Italy, Portugal, Finland and Poland. The presentations were related to the participation in the job market, civic activity, emerging and evolving political and social movements, and social exclusion of the youth.

Prof. Krystyna Szafraniec from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń delivered the second plenary lecture, in which she discussed the issue whether young people can still rebel, taking into account the precariousness of their situation on the job market and limited possibilities of achieving their aspirations under the current social-economic conditions.

The conference inspired the participants to debate on the issue of agency in youth and adult studies and its relation to structure. Conference proceedings will be published in the near future. Recognising the importance of the issue, the Polish national television (Telewizja Polska) has prepared a documentary, which will be broadcast on 28 September at 11.00 a.m. on the TVP Regionalna station.

Detailed conference programme with a list of discussed topics can be found here.