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To Be or Not To Be Political: An Investigation of Active Youth Citizenship Among Young, Educated Syrians in Beirut to Question International Development Discourse
JOURNAL OF YOUTH RESEARCHES
the context of this research: It entails a combination of displacement and socioeconomic
hardship, derived from the need to resort to the respective aid provision. This distinction
was employed by the research respondents themselves, although many were likewise
forced to migrate due to the war in Syria, emphasising the heterogenous composition of
the Syrian population in Lebanon.
2.2. Data Collection and Analysis
The main method of data collection was semi-structured interviewing in an informal set-
ting. In addition, participant observations were conducted to complement and enrich the
interview data. Overall, eleven interviews with in total twelve respondents were includ-
ed as primary sources. The observation data was recorded as field notes and proved
useful as contextual knowledge to substantiate or repudiate claims made in interviews.
Non-probabilistic, purposeful sampling was applied to identify suitable interviewees.
Considering the size of Beirut and the scope of the research project, convenience sam-
pling following the snowball or chain referral technique proved as most useful to collect
enough data within the amount of time available.
In the end, the sample was composed as follows: Five interviewees were female, seven
were male. Ten interviewees were between the ages of 21 and 28, while two – one man
and one woman – were in their thirties.
6
Eleven of the twelve respondents were of Syrian
nationality; one exception was made for a man of Iraqi nationality who had lived in Syria
for much of his life. While two interviewees had already lived in Lebanon prior to 2011
for educational reasons, seven interviewees entered the country after the outbreak of
the uprisings in Syria. One woman had already studied in Beirut before 2011 and had
returned to Syria, but was forced to come back to Lebanon. I do not possess information
about the duration of stay of two remaining interviewees. All interviews were conducted
in English language in a one-on-one setting. A conversational style that would not direct
my interlocutors too much was evaluated as beneficial. Research respondents were free
to withdraw from the interview or bypass questions at any time.
7
The interviews usually
lasted between 45 and 60 minutes; after this amount of time, the key issues were covered
and fatigue set in on both sides.
The research analysis concentrated on interpreting the collected data in-depth, consider-
ing that “the larger the number of people, the less detail that typically can emerge from any
one individual” (Cresswell & Plano Clark, 2011, 174). The inductive approach advanced
6
This research defines ‘young’ as the age group from 18 to 30 years, which extends the prevalent UN definition of youth
that ranges from 15 to 24 years (UNHCR, 2013). The extension is justified by sociological findings of a prolonged phase of
youth in the Arab World (cf. Kiwan, 2015). It is important to keep in mind that a definition by age cannot fully capture the
qualitative dimension of ‘youthfulness’ (cf. Bayat, 2010). For this reason, two interviewees of 33 and 36 years of age were
included because no distinction could be made between their lifestyle in comparison to that of other respondents.
7
For further information about research ethics see the respective guidelines of the Amsterdam Institute for Social Scienc-
es Research (2013).
