Needles in haystacks

Book excerpt: (Young) lives are cross-sectoral by nature, and youth policy also needs to be so. Cross-sectorality is a well-known aspect of youth policy, but the importance of this aspect does not translate into a common understanding of what cross-sectoral youth policy means and of the ways it can be developed. This book is a collection of articles detailing concrete experiences of cross-sectoral youth policy implementation. It starts with the idea that the efficacy and the sustainability of cross-sectoral youth policy depends on the degree and nature of interaction between various youth policy subdomains and levels, ranging from legal frameworks to interinstitutional or interpersonal relations, and from pan-European to local level. By making these examples available, this book will hopefully support the development of a common understanding of what cross-sectoral youth policy means in different countries and settings. The authors themselves reflect the diversity of the people involved in youth policy (policy makers, youth researchers, youth workers and workers in the field of youth) and this work represents their intention to provide these professionals – as well as others interested in the youth field – with the knowledge necessary to implement, in a real-life scenario, cross-sectoral youth policy.