Qualitative Research in European Youth Market

Quantitative research methods (surveys, statistics) tell us how many, how much and how often but fail to answer the core question: why.

Through the ‘Youth Builds Europe’ and ‘EYCAdemy’ projects, EYCA has set up a permanent tool of simultaneous qualitative youth research among young people across Europe.

The Youth Builds Europe pilot project used qualitative research (focus group methods) to explore the values of young Europeans as well as their attitudes towards the EURO<26 youth card. YBE started in seven countries: Austria, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Wales.

Building on the success of Youth Builds Europe, EYCA launched a new project in January 2005 called the EYCAdemy, which establishes a permanent structure for youth research within the EYCA-network: a European-wide panel of youth researchers working with the focus group method.

Seventeen countries from across Europe are already involved in EYCAdemy: Andorra, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain (Madrid), Turkey and Wales.

The long-term goal is to promote EYCA pan-European youth research services to European institutions, organisations, and youth-related market interests.