Young citizens – Citizenship beliefs and practices

Abstract

Changes in young citizens’ political participation have become a growing area of interest in the past decades. On the one hand, traditional forms of political participation, such as electoral politics and party membership, are on the decline. On the other hand, emerging forms of political activity, such as involvement in social movements, consumer participation or contentions participation, are becoming more prominent. While the impact of this development on democratic systems as well as the categorisation of young citizens as either predominantly active or passive is still contested, it has nevertheless facilitated approaches to promote active citizenship of young people. However, the structure of belief systems and the connection between young people’s beliefs and practices are still not fully understood. Moreover, recent developments, such as the Fridays for Future movement or the Covid pandemic, have changed participation processes and citizenship practices alike. This panel, therefore, aims to explore young people’s citizenship beliefs, practices and how citizenship can be conceptualised to reflect emerging forms of political activity. We welcome a range of papers, including but not limited to empirical and methodological studies about/with young citizens’ as well as theoretical and educational contributions. We are also interested in the effects of current developments, such as youth environmental protests or the Covid pandemic, on young people’s citizenship perspectives and practices. We encourage papers to focus on young people and stakeholders of young people’s citizenship, from a wide range of contexts including formal and non-formal education, party politics, community participation or social movements.

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