Natalia Waechter

University of Graz | KFU Graz

The Friday for Future school strikes have vividly demonstrated young people’s concern for the rapidly deteriorating life and survival chances of future generations of human and nonhuman beings. The young people’s ambivalence between despair and hope, feelings of powerlessness and empowerment challenge us to recognise the complexity and dynamic not...

Digital skills are considered critical for functioning in contemporary society, yet there are differences between adolescents’ skills depending on demographic and socioeconomic variables. This study, utilising data from six EU countries ( N = 6221; M age = 14.5; SD = 1.4), takes a person-oriented approach to examine adolescents digital skill profil...

In today’s digital era, having access to digital resources and possessing digital skills is crucial for active (online) civic participation (e.g., voting, participating in public forums, community involvement). However, a significant digital divide persists, with a notable disparity in both access to and proficient use of digital resources, particu...

This dataset provides longitudinal survey data from a European project, ySKILLS, which was focused on the role of digital skills in youths’ development. It contains data from 10,821 participants from Grades 6–10 (in Wave 1) in Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Portugal. The data was collected between Spring 2021 and Spring 2023, the par...

Digital skills are considered critical for functioning in contemporary society, yet there are differences between adolescents’ skills depending on demographic and socioeconomic variables. This study, ulizing data from six EU-countries (N=6221; Mage=14.5; SD=1.4), takes a person-oriented approach to examine adolescents digital skill profiles and ass...

Zusammenfassung Der Artikel untersucht das Selbstverständnis von jungen Aktivist:innen der Fridays for Future (FFF) Bewegung und analysiert, inwiefern und welchen Kontexten sich die Protestierenden politisch selbstwirksam für die zukünftige Entwicklung der Klimakrise verstehen und welche Strategien sie zur Förderung ihrer Selbstwirksamkeit einsetze...

Although young people spend increasing amounts of time online, many gaps remain in the literature regarding the effect of time spent online on young people's development of well-being. We focus on the influence of time spent online on feelings of self-reported (a) depression and (b) health of adolescents. We also consider the mediating role of digi...

Based on our experiences with implementing the comparative school-based ySKILLS survey in six European countries, this article investigates the preparation of fieldwork in school-based surveys. This includes the sampling strategies and recruitment of schools and (secondary level) students, the continuous collaboration with schools, as well as colle...

The article discusses issues related to the trend of the rapid expansion of higher education in Europe that is also fostered by European politics. These politics would strive, inter alia, for more social equality by allowing larger parts of the population to obtain higher education. However, this process implies also the inflation of the societal v...

The paper discusses issues related to the trend of the rapid expansion of higher in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), with a special emphasis on Austria. HE expansion is an ongoing pro-cess in individual countries that is also fostered by European politics. These politics would strive, inter alia, for more social equality by allowing large...

The paper discusses issues related to the trend of the rapid expansion of higher in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), with a special emphasis on Austria. HE expansion is an ongoing process in individual countries that is also fostered by European politics. These politics would strive, inter alia, for more social equality by allowing larger...

Socialization theories suggest that, due to social change and technological transformation, peers and media have become important institutions of socialization for young people. Assuming that male adolescents use digital games for processes of peer self-socialization, this article investigates the values they mediate in digital games and how these...

Die Bearbeitung von sozialen Problemen gehörte von jeher zu den Kernaufgaben der Sozialen Arbeit. Doch wo liegen ihre Grenzen und Möglichkeiten? In der Sozialen Arbeit wird die Entstehung und der Wandel sozialer Hilfen aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven analysiert. Anhand empirischer Beispiele nimmt der Band hierzu das Spannungsfeld zwischen Organi...

The article discusses issues related to the trend towards the massification and universalization of higher education and its implications in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Research sample includes 44 out of 48 EHEA countries and covers the time-period of 1999–2017. Subject of the study at issue are several aspects of labour market equil...

Moved Peoples and Moved Borders: Research on the interplay of ethnic, national and regional identities in Central and Eastern Europe. The paper consists of two parts: the first part summarizes the main objectives and methods of the international research project ENRI-East (Interplay of European, National and Regional Identities: Nations between the...

The Interplay of European, National and Regional Identities: Nations between states along the new eastern borders of the European Union (ENRI-East) ENRI-East is a research project implemented in 2008-2011 and primarily funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Program. This international and inter-disciplinary study is aimed at...

The papers in this volume reflect the debates that progressed during the 4th Global conference on Cybercultures: Exploring Critical Issues, held as a part of Cyber Hub activity in Salzburg, Austria in March 2009. The edited draft papers make up a snapshot for the actual publishing. This multi-disciplinary conference project is a successful reborn o...

Social networking sites (e.g., MySpace and Facebook) are popular online communication forms among adolescents and emerging adults. Yet little is known about young people's activities on these sites and how their networks of “friends” relate to their other online (e.g., instant messaging) and offline networks. In this study, college students respond...

Im Verlauf des 20. Jahrhunderts wurden in Europa Grenzen immer wieder neu gezogen und umdefiniert. Mit dem Beitritt der östlichen Nachbarn Österreichs zur EU ist hat sich die letzte große Transformation vollzogen, die eine Öffnung der Grenzen und damit die Entwicklung neuer Beziehungen zwischen lange Zeit durch den Eisernen Vorhang getrennten Gebie...