Data Set Title: CATCH-EyoU: Public Authorities engaging with youth: Policy Documents and Interviews: Italy: v01”
Data Set Creators: Cicognani, Elvira (University of Bologna); Amnå, Erik (Örebro University)
Data Set Contributors: Mazzoni, Davide (University of Bologna)
The data set was generated within the research project Constructing AcTive CitizensHip with European Youth: Policies, Practices, Challenges and Solutions funded by European Union, Horizon 2020 Programme
http://www.catcheyou.eu
Grant Agreement No 649538

Data set Documentation
Excerpt of the analysed aggregated qualitative data from the interviews conducted in Italy by the University of Bologna (UNIBO) team. 
Participants
A total of 17 participants were selected choosing individuals who belonged to one of these three groups:
1.	Politicians (PL), who were recruited on political grounds (e.g., elected officials) (1 at national level, 5 at regional/local level; total N = 6)
2.	Public officials (PO), who were recruited on professional grounds; they have responsibility for youth policies or some policy area of youth politics (3 at national level, 4 at regional/local level; total = 7)
3.	Spokespersons (or someone nominated by their organization) of youth umbrella organizations or of a single, relevant and important, youth organization (YO). (2 at national level, 2 at regional/local level; total N = 4)
Some participants had played multiple roles in youth policies, in the past or present (e.g. local politician and president of an association at the same time); for the purposes of the interview, they were asked about their current role (or the role played during the reference period of the analysis, i.e. 2012-2014 if they are no more in such role today).
Participants at regional/local level were approached from four Italian regions, including the North (Piemonte, Liguria), Centre-North (Emilia Romagna) and South (Puglia), in order to capture a range of different experiences across Italy. 
10 participants are male and 7 females. The mean age of politicians was 47,3 years (SD = 13,1; range 31-62), the mean age of public officials was 49 years (SD = 8,3; range 39-62) and of spokespersons of youth organizations was 33,5 years (SD = 5,1; range 26-37). 
Methodology
Semi-structured interviews
Interview questions
Que 1b: In your view, how would you define young person? (i.e., when do you start being a young person, when does it end, why and how)?  
Que 2a: In your view, what are some of the opportunities of being a young person/citizen in Europe?
Que 2b: In your view, what are some of the challenges of being a young person/citizen in Europe?
Que 4a: Would you say that there exist any policies specifically concentrating on young people in your country/local context? 
Que 5: What would you say is the core aim of your policy/youth action/youth program/youth network? 
Analysis
The findings from the interviews and documents will further be used in a final discourse analysis. There are many different approaches to discourse analysis in the literature. It is therefore difficult to develop common tools for how to conduct a discourse analysis. Below we have tried to identify some important things to have in mind when analysing the interview material and the policy documents for this purpose. 
a)	In order to get a good overview of the collected material, carefully go through the texts several times, while having our overall research questions in mind.
b)	Look for both manifest and latent messages in your material. While manifest messages include obvious, observable or explicitly shown things, the latent messages are indirect and beneath the surface and consequently often implicitly escape our immediate attention. The question you have to ask yourself is: what is not being said overtly, but is still assumed to be known or inferable.
c)	Try to categorize and thematically organize the manifest and latent content of the texts and interviews highlighting the youth policy discourse among politicians, public officials, and youth organisation representatives. 
Results
Results are organized according to the following themes:
Theme 3: How are young people spoken of, presented and described?
-	Are young people described as resource for the development of society; a political force in the development and functioning of democracies? 
-	Or are they described more as a vulnerable or risky group? 
-	Or are they presented as simultaneously a vulnerable group and a resource for societal and political development?
Theme 4: Young people’s problems in society - society´s problems with young people
Theme 5: What solutions appear to be wise and reasonable, and what are left out of the agenda?