Society

The Finnish Youth Research Society is a non-profit organization founded in 1988, for the purpose of promoting multidisciplinary youth research in Finland. The goal of the Youth Research Society is to develop youth research and to provide information and expertise on matters relating to young people - studies, perspectives, interpretations and political stands.

The Finnish Youth Research Society conducts its own research activities through the Finnish Youth Research Network, founded in the beginning of 1999. The Youth Research Network is a community of researchers which works together with universities, research institutes and various professionals in the field of youth work and youth policy.

The Finnish Youth Research Society's primary activities are different kinds of seminars and discussion forums. The goal of the seminars is to offer forums for cooperation to researchers, government officials, teachers, students and youth work professionals. These events are based on a structured dialogue regarding the questions and challenges faced by young people.

The Finnish Youth Research Society arranges the Annual Conference of Youth Studies and gives out awards for thesis work of particular merit in youth research.

The purpose of the Finnish Youth Research Society’s and Network’s common publication series is to provide publications that are socially relevant, scientifically sound and take up fresh perspectives. This publication series is composed of monographs such as doctoral dissertations related to contemporary youth issues, article collections and research reports. The majority of the publications are in Finnish.

The multidisciplinary Finnish language journal Nuorisotutkimus [Youth Research] is published quarterly. This peer-reviewed journal describes and interprets a wide spectrum of young people’s lives in the light of different themes. In addition to scholarly articles, the journal contains editorials, book reviews and discussions related to youth research, as well as announcements of upcoming seminars and events. The journal contains English summaries of articles, which can be found on the Nuorisotutkimus web page.

Literature relevant to youth research can be found in the Youth Research Library and network information about youth research can be found at the Youth Research House maintained by the library.

The Finnish Youth Research Society's activities have increased greatly in recent years: the Society has established international contacts with other European research institutes and also functioned actively in the field of Finnish youth research both as a publisher and a research coordinator.