Having a voice and a place: local youth driving urban development in an East German town under transformation

In small towns with ageing societies, the voices of the young often tend to get marginalized in local policy discourse. The paper explores how young people are trying to counter this trend through the creation of a self-organized youth and sociocultural centre in Gorlitz, a town that suffered major transformation in the aftermath of German reunification. Gorlitz also made national headlines when a Eurosceptic right-wing party gained a large share of votes in recent elections. In this context, it is quite surprising to see an initiative like the sociocultural centre emerge and grow into a relevant urban development player. By combining research on youth participation and spatial (in)justice, the paper argues in favour of the important role of youth as active drivers of local development and creators of less institutionalized platforms for democratic engagement. In transformation towns such as Gorlitz, initiatives like the youth and sociocultural centre can be game changers in terms of countering spatial injustices by creating positive narratives over the town, fostering pluralistic public discourse, and preventing youth outmigration.