What is Representation?

What is representation? What are the advantages of representation? Why should we demand our right of representation?

We talk about representation quite often and say that we wish to be represented. Yet what do we mean by representation?

Representation is one of the most valuable instruments for participation in decision-making processes. In cases where it is not possible for us to follow all the processes and take part in all of them directly, it actually means that people who understand our problems, who have seen or observed similar problems, who can make the contributions we want to offer to the processes are there on our behalf.

Why do we as young people want youth representation?

We are aware that the problems we face as young people are unique to this day and age. We are also aware that the concepts of our times create problems of their own. Participation of individuals familiar with these problems in the representative system will make the process of representation much easier.

We think that having non-young people trying to represent the youth instead of young people would be quite time consuming and inconvenient. Beyond being a long and inconvenient process, it is possible that at the end of this process, the level of representation we wish for may not be realized.

Non-young people need to hear young people’s voices, understand them, develop solutions to the problems they understand and evaluate young people’s reactions to these proposals. This is a very long process. Moreover, it is not certain that all of these steps will turn out as they should.

Where does the lack of youth in decision-making lead to?

When listening to young people, for example, the decision-maker may consider young people as a homogeneous group. However, a generalization would be wrong for young people, who do not make up a whole, but have quite different breakdowns within themselves. Even if we assume that they can listen to young people by paying attention according to their distribution, it may not be that easy for them to understand the problems of young people. For example, when young people talk about how insufficient the internet infrastructure is in Turkey and how problematic the internet speed is, a decision-maker needs to determine the value of the internet from the perspective of young people in order to understand how this affects them. They need to know what it means for them to play games on the internet, what place the internet takes in the life practices they have developed, how they use the internet when they are curious about something, so that they can understand how young people feel about the consequences of bad connections.

In order to understand all these processes, it is necessary to have a good understanding of the dynamics around young people. Let’s assume that this stage is somehow achieved. In the next stage, they need to come up with a solution. It is very important that the solutions of their approach to the problem in question do not restrict young people and give them what they want. Another important factor is that the solutions should be functional in a variety of situations.

A Simple Solution: Ensuring Youth Representation with Young People

It is not exactly possible to expect all of these from a politician. This politician should only be looking at these issues with their focus on young people. Even if he or she can do this, this would be a very costly process. Instead of all these long processes, there is a very simple solution. That is to ensure youth representation with young people. In other words, allowing young people to enter decision-making tables and provide representation. By doing so, this will reduce the pressure on all the above-mentioned processes. And it will increase the role of representation in ensuring a better quality of life for young people.

Representation is not only about issues that concern young people. It is also very valuable for young people to contribute their own ideas to all decision-making processes. In this way, a more inclusive and wider space will be provided in decision-making processes.

As Arayuz Campaign, we think that representation is a very important and valuable process. We strongly believe that representation is our inalienable right as young people and that we should actively create demands to ensure this right.