Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.5673/sip.60.3.6
Culture, Identity and Cultural Participation among Secondary School Pupils in Croatia
Benjamin Perasović
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb, Croatia
Rašeljka Krnić
orcid.org/0000-0002-2370-433X
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb, Croatia
Marina Maglić
orcid.org/0000-0002-6851-4601
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
In this paper, we investigate how secondary school pupils in Croatia understand and experience
their cultural identity and forms of their cultural participation. As part of the international
Horizon 2020 CHIEF project, qualitative research was conducted in Croatia, which
included second-grade pupils from three secondary schools; one in a large city, another in a
smaller urban centre, and the third in a rural area. We interviewed 60 pupils (twenty from each
school) and nine teachers (three from each school) using a semi-structured form. Additionally,
a survey was conducted in 28 secondary schools on more than 2,000 pupils as part of the
project. Qualitative findings, supported by the survey findings, indicate that young people
primarily identify themselves through the modes and patterns of place, region and nation, and
only then through the modes and patterns of Europe and humanity. The differences between
urban and rural environments did not prove to be decisive for the diversity of attitudes and
forms of cultural participation of young people. Exposure to multicultural experiences seems
to be more important, along with the economic dimension of the narrower region, which in
some cases influenced the meaning young people attach to ethnic diversity in their own environment.
Considering the high position of music on a scale of young people’s most common
forms of cultural participation, suggested by the survey results, the important finding of the
qualitative part of the research is the dominance of styles in connection with popular music
called ‘cajka’, regardless of the degree of urbanization (big city versus rural area).
Keywords
culture; identity; cultural participation; adolescents
Hrčak ID:
295209
URI
Publication date:
9.3.2023.
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