Young People's Politics

The PSA Young People’s Politics specialist group addresses various questions within contemporary and historical contexts related to young people’s political participation, such as:

• What does ‘politics’ and political participation mean to young people?
• How and why do young people choose to participate (or not) in politics and democracy?
• How can young people be encouraged to participate more widely (and deeply) in various forms of civic and political engagement, including electoral and non-electoral forms of political participation?
• How is the landscape of young people’s citizenship and political participation evolving?
• Why is young people’s political participation important?

Members of the YPP specialist group engage with key issues, such as:

citizenship, citizenship education, political socialisation, Votes at 16, electoral participation, political generations, non-electoral participation, Do-It-Ourselves politics, protest, engagement, generational replacement, representation, precarity and politics, intergenerational inequalities.

Become a YPP member (it is free to join for PSA members!) by clicking on the button below and receive our newsletter: youngpeoplespoliticspsa@gmail.com

***

The next Political Studies Association annual conference will be taking place in Liverpool, 3-5 April 2023. 

Here are the panel topics we will be putting on:

1) Young people’s politics and citizenship (chair: Christine & Chika)  

2) Young people’s politics and social inequalities (chair: Sarah)

3) Young people’s politics and environmental activism (chair: Ben)

4) Young people’s politics and electoral politics (joint session with EPOP) (chair: Emily)

5) Young people’s politics and research methods: papers and workshop (chair: Ana)

Abstracts have now been accepted and authors notified.

***

This is to let you know this year’s annual Young People’s Politics (YPP) “From Paper to Publication” event is coming up with place for 5 participants and convenors.

Here is the schedule:

23 July 2022 - Proposal abstracts to be sent before this date to: http://youngpeoplespoliticspsa@gmail.com

Please include your name, affiliation, 3-sentence biography and a 200-word abstract with a title.

30 July 2022 - Notification will be sent back by convenors by this date.

19 September 2022 - Papers for discussion to be sent to convenors and 5 participants by this date.

17 October 2022 - From Publication to Paper event to be held in person (Manchester, Nottingham or Sheffield - location to be confirmed) with hybrid option.

As a reminder, the purpose of the workshop is to provide constructive support to one another on a piece of writing: a full draft of a journal article, book or thesis chapter, or grant application (case for support) (not something already published).

This event aims to bring together scholars with a broad interest in innovative and pluralistic research in the field of young people and politics. We welcome and encourage submissions from scholars at all stages of their careers, including at PhD level, and from a wide range of backgrounds.

The event will last for a full day and will allow scholars at all stages of their career to put their latest work through rapid and intensive review by like-minded experts. Please note, that you will be required to produce a full draft of a journal article, book or thesis chapter, or grant application (case for support) to be sent to the other workshop participants sufficiently in advance of the workshop (one month). All the YPP convenors and other 4 participants comment on the papers submitted during the one-day event.

We, therefore, request that you set aside the whole day.

This event is reserved for Young People’s Politics specialist group members (membership is free!)

This is an open call, so we welcome pieces relating to any aspect of young people's politics and engagement, encouraging a plurality of methods, approaches, geographical locations, types of engagement etc. If you are interested in participating in this event, please follow the schedule above.

We look forward to receiving abstracts!

PSA Annual Conference 2022, 10-13 April

Monday, 11th of April

09.30 – Young People’s Politics: Perceptions and Narratives of the Political

Venue - SLB104

Chaired by: Dr. Katherine Smith

1. “I’m angry against the system that plays me”: exploring narratives of anger and hope among contemporary youth (Prof. Cecile Van de Velde)
2. This is Political to me: Young People's Perception about politics (Ms. Valentina Holecz)
3. How Perception of Agency Influences Young People’s Activism in the UK (Ms. Silvia Behrens)
4. Democracy Defined: Ukrainian Civil Society Perspectives (Dr. Christine Emeran)

14.45 – Young People’s Politics and Environmental Activism

Venue - SLB104

Chaired by Dr Heather Alberro and Ana Nunes

1. From Waves of Crisis to Sustainable Public Policy: The Everyday Politics of Young Londoners (Prof. James Sloam, Prof. Ben O'Loughlin)
2. The Engagement of Young Environmental Activists at COP26 (Dr. Sarah Pickard)
3. Youth, Efficacy and Urban Environmental Engagement: Putting Youth Voice at the Centre of Nottingham’s Carbon Neutral 2028 Vision (Prof. Matt Henn, Prof. James Sloam, Ms. Dena Arya, Dr. Christine Huebner)
4. Young People’s involvement in environmental activism: A Matter of Class and Capitalism (Ms. Dena Arya, Prof. Matt Henn, Dr. Oliver Harrison, Dr. Christine Huebner)

14.45 – Young People’s Political Opinions and Participation in Europe

Venue - SLB108

Chaired by: Andrew Barclay

1. Political interest of young people in South East Europe: a crossnational study (Dr. Anja Gvozdanović)
2. Young people politics and new forms of mobilisation: the Italian laboratory (Dr. Lidia Lo Schiavo, Prof. Paola Rebughini)
3. A disillusioned generation? Young people and Political Participation: an inquiry into the French case (Ms. Amaia Courty)
4. A generation apart? Explaining youth participation (Dr. Patrícia Silva, Dr. Edna Costa, Dr. Patrício Costa)

Tuesday, 12th of April

09:30 – Young People’s Politics, Identity, Belonging and Spaces

Venue - SLB104

Chaired by Dr. Ben Bowman

1. Change and Continuity of Citizenship Norms: Parental Socialisation of Poles (Ms. Weronika Najda)
2. Nationalism as the Main Explanatory Tool Serbian Students Use to Narrate the Violent Yugoslav Break-up? (Mr. Rodoljub Jovanovic, Dr. Angela Bermudez)
3. Young people, political participation, and devolved politics: the meaning of Wales as a civic space among first-time voters in Wales (Dr. Christine Huebner, Dr. Katherine Smith, Dr. Tom Loughran, Dr. Jan Eichhorn, Dr. Andrew Mycock) Join us in person or online!

12:30 – Young People’s Politics Specialist Group Meeting 

Join us in person or online!

13:30 – Young People’s Politics and Doing Research with Young People

Venue - SLB104

Chaired by: Dr. Sarah Pickard

1. Covid-19, Inequality, and Digital Engagement: challenges and lessons from working with young people online during the pandemic (Dr. Katherine Smith, Dr. Christine Huebner, Dr. Jan Eichhorn, Dr. Andrew Mycock, Dr. Tom Loughran)
2. Youth political participation: research practice and practice-based research (Dr. Ana Isabel Nunes, Dr. Kevin Love)
3. Childhood Participation: A Challenge of Design and Implementation of Public Policies in Chile (Ms. Paulina Jara-Osorio)

15:15 – Young People’s Politics, Education and Citizenship

Venue - SLB104

Chaired by: Ms. Dena Arya

1. Young people’s citizenship activities at school – Preliminary results of original research from a rural secondary school in Germany (Ms. Janina Suppers)
2. Analysis of how English citizenship teachers characterize good citizens: How Can Citizenship Teachers’ Concept of Good Citizen Be Related to Young People’s Citizenship (Ms. Chika Hosoda)
3. What’s the starting point? How data about young people’s values can inform effective citizenship education strategies (Prof. Alistair Ross, Dr. Tom Loughran, Dr. Andrew Mycock)
4. Practical application of Westheimer and Kahne’s citizen typology with qualitative data (Ms. Chika Hosoda, Ms. Janina Suppers)
5. From the Margins to Mainstream: ‘Alternative’ Engagement in Young People (Ms. Rebecca Baker)

Wednesday, 13th of April

09:30 – Young People’s Politics, Performative Political Participation and Art

Venue - SLB104

Chaired by: Dr. Andrew Mycock

1. Using an Arts Integration approach to enrich the teaching of democracy to 10-11year olds in the UK: research findings (Ms. Miranda Duffy)
2. The Future of Futures project: young people's political self-empowerment through the arts (Dr. Ana Isabel Nunes, Dr. Kevin Love, Prof. Matt Henn)
3. Young Climate Imaginaries: using climate fiction to explore climate justice and climate action (Dr. Ben Bowman, Dr. Chloé Germaine)

13.30 – Roundtable: Impact and Youth Voice in British Democracy: Enhancing Political Literacy and Political Participation

Venue - SLB104

Chaired by Prof. James Sloam

Contributions from Professor Sarah Mills, Prof. Matt Henn, Dr. Christine Huebner, and Dr. James Weinberg.

13.30 – Young People, Institutions, Representation, and Engagement

Venue - SLB118

Chaired by Dr Andrew Barclay

1. Success Factors of Voting Age Reform: Lessons from The Introduction of Votes-at-16 in Wales (Dr. Tom Loughran, Dr. Katherine Smith, Dr. Christine Huebner, Dr. Jan Eichhorn, Dr. Andrew Mycock)

2. 'Immature' Representatives: Age Eligibility Requirements & Youth Representation. (Brittany Anlar, Cecilia Ritacco and Paige Chan)

3. Chatham House (Ben Horton)

15:30 – Young People’s Politics and the Media

Venue - SLB104

Chaired by: Dr. James Dennis and Dr. Christine Huebner

1. How Only Some UK Citizens Are Socialised into Echo Chambers, Filter Bubbles and Epistemic Bubbles, and the Implications for Democracy (Mr. Scott Downham)
2. "They Don't Understand What it Means to be Poor": How Social Inequality Shapes Young People's Experience of Politics Online (Dr. James Dennis)
3. How Perception of Agency Influences Young People’s Activism in the UK (Ms. Silvia Behrens)
4. Living within the Margins? Comparing Country Performance in the Youth Progress Index (Dr. David Alemna)