Understanding Young People’s Use of Civic and Political Engagement as a Path to Employment in Algeria: A Functional Analysis

Abstract

This article discusses a situation in which civic and political engagement worked for young Algerians as a pathway to employment, attempting to understand why they used this method. A functional analysis inspired by psychological studies on volunteering was applied to analyse 17 interviews conducted with young people who expressed the motivation for employment in the context of engagement with political parties and associations. The results show that engagement with these organizations was a way of strengthening human, social and cultural capital that reflects young people’s agency to cope in a context where access to employment requires the ability to navigate through different paths. On the other hand, some inclusive roles of political parties and associations in terms of offering young people socio-professional integration and social development were found.