Assessing Youth Exclusion through Discourse and Policy Analysis: The Case of Lebanon

To assess youth exclusion at the macro institutional level in Lebanon, this paper proposes a methodology that critically investigates discourse production on youth, as well as policy making targeting youth. Two types of discourse that dominate knowledge production on youth in Lebanon are identified and investigated: a policy-led discourse, and an academic discourse. Factors of youth exclusion are further explored through four policy sectors (employment, migration, family, spatial planning). Our findings demonstrate that Lebanese youth are constructed through fragmented lenses and policies that lack an interdisciplinary and integrated understanding of their complex, dynamic and highly differentiated livelihoods. Youth are actively excluded from politics, economics, society and the built environment, through policies that do not prioritize their needs and desires.