Young People and (Good) Citizenship at Critical Juncture(s)

Young people are the key demographic for sustaining democratic societies. Yet, those growing up increasingly witness overlapping crises which feed uncertainty about individual and collective futures—from financial turmoil to war, national protectionism, environmental destruction, and even extreme political polarization. With political disengagement, democratic decline, populism, and technological advancements already prominent and regular features in youth citizenship debates, urgent questions arise about how these crises shape the evolution of youth citizenship. However, the existing literature, largely drawing from more stable political contexts, has yet to fully account for how youth citizenship is formed, practiced, and reimagined in turbulent times.

This session brings together papers that examine how young people’s citizenship beliefs, practices, acts, norms, and attitudes evolve at this critical juncture. Papers may examine questions such as: What does ‘good citizenship’ mean for young people, and how stable is this meaning in light of recent crises? What changes can be observed in youth citizenship at critical junctures, and which factors (economic, political, social, etc.) can help explain these changes? How does young people’s citizenship vary across socio-political, cultural, and geographic contexts, and what political future(s) do young people imagine for themselves and for their societies in these turbulent times? We welcome qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method papers, as well as conceptual and theoretical submissions. Studies may focus on liberal democracies, regions with colonial legacies, countries with fragile institutions, or other contexts, as we aim to foster dialogue across temporal and geographic boundaries on youth citizenship in an age of disruption.