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, social movements, 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

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PSA 2025 IN-PERSON ANNUAL CONFERENCE 14-16 APRIL 2025 IN BIRMINGHAM!

1) Young People's Politics - Citizenship & Political Education - chair Ana

2) Young People's Politics - Political Socialisation & Digital Engagement - chair Sarah

3) Workshop: Young People's Politics Workshop - Intersectionality and Participatory Arts-based Research with Young People: A taster in creative approaches - chair Dena

4) Young People's Politics - Elections & Voting - chair Katherine

5) Young People's Politics - Activism & Participation - chair Chika

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PSA 2025 IN-PERSON ANNUAL CONFERENCE 14-16 APRIL 2025 IN BIRMINGHAM!

THE CALL FOR PAPERS FOR 2025 PSA CONFERENCE IS OPEN12 JULY 2024 -18 OCTOBER 2024

We are particularly keen to receive qualitative, mixed methods and co-production research proposals on the following 6 topics, which were all suggested during our specialist group annual meeting in Glasgow at PSA 2024:

1. Young People’s Politics and citizenship or political education (traditional panel).

2. People’s Politics and digital citizenship (traditional panel).

3. Young People’s Politics and intersectionality (traditional panel).

4. Young People’s Politics, (non)voting, elections, youth wings and young candidates (traditional panel).

5. Young People’s Politics and engaging with institutions (workshop participatory discussion panel).

6. Young People’s Politics and methodologies - qualitative participatory methods (workshop participatory discussion panel)

We can’t guarantee all these panels will take place and feel free to submit abstracts on other Young People’s Politics topic for consideration.

After careful deliberation, the PSA conference organising team has agreed on a more streamlined approach to the call for papers, and panels formation for PSA25. This means we are doing things a little differently this year! 

You will no longer submit your abstracts directly to us (as convenors of the Young People’s Politics specialist group).

Instead, please log-in to Ex-Ordo via this link 12 July 2024 - 18 October 2024 and upload your abstract (up to 300 words). 

We will then review and select proposals. 

If you don’t already have an Ex-Ordo account, you can create one via this link.

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PSA 2024 IN-PERSON ANNUAL CONFERENCE 25-27 MARCH 2024 IN GLASGOW

Here are the five panels:

1) Young people's politics, generations and intergenerationality (Chair Christine Huebner) -

Monday 25 March 2024 - 9:30

a) Lucas Walsh (Monash University), Blake Cutler (Monash University)

Unseen and darkly optimistic: Young people’s civic and political engagement from under the radar

b) Benjamin Bowman (Manchester Metropolitan University), Maddy Starzak (FoodWorks Sheffield)
The precarity of hope at the end of the world: young climate activism in search of a future

c) Sarah Pickard (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3), Dena Arya (Nottingham Trent University)
Intergenerationality in young people’s climate and environmental engagement: exchanges, equity and conflict
 

2) Young people’s politics, (in)equalities, and (in)justices (Chair Dena Arya) - Monday 25 March 2024 - 1:30

a) Pen Williams (University of Bristol)
 Outside (as) the Classroom – Using Green Space to Develop Young People as Critical Citizens of a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) World.

b) Kelly Céleste Vossen (UCLouvain)

Exploring Ecocitizenship: Unveiling Implicit and Explicit Discourses through Ethnographic Insights in Belgian Youth Activism and Participatory Programs

c) Ianthi Stergiou (Birkbeck, University of London)
Exploring the Impact of Student Political Organizations on Women's Political Participation: Preliminary findings from Greece
 

3) Young people’s politics, electoral (non)participation, voting and youth wings (Chairs Chika Hosoda and Sarah Pickard) - Monday 25 March 2024 - 3:30

a) Amaran Uthayakumar-Cumarasamy (University College London)

Asymmetries of UK Youth Enfranchisement - A Comparative Study of Youth Enfranchisement in Scotland, Wales and England

b) Lucas Ormière (Centre Émile-Durkheim, Sciences Po Bordeaux)
Do New Generations Still Perceive Voting as a "Civic Duty" in Spain?

c) Duncan McDonnell (Griffith University)

Mainstream Party Youth Wings Today: Who Joins, Why do they Join, and What do they do?

d) Claire Breniaux (University of Franche-Comté)
SNP Youth Membership: Explaining Youth Party Membership with A New Model
 

4) Young people's politics, futures and hope (Chair Katherine Smith) - Tuesday 26 March 2024 - 9:30

a) Panagiota Nakou (University of Bath)

Brexit and Europe in Times of Crisis: Exploring the Construction of European Identity among Young People in London and Athens during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

b)  Roger Soler-i-Martí (Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona)
Young people, new practices and activist commitments.

c) Christine Huebner (The University of Sheffield)
Young people’s political engagement throughout transitions into adulthood: Evidence from longitudinal research in Scotland
 

AGM Young People's Politics specialist group

5) Young People’s Politics and the role of place and space in political participation (Chair Ana Nunes and Dena Arya) - Tuesday 26 March 2024 - 1:30

a) Zoe Clegg (Swansea University)
‘This is the only place and the only time that young people actually get listened to’ The spatial contexts of young people’s citizenship

b) Chika Hosoda (University of York), Janina Suppers (University of Waikato)
Spaces for young people’s citizenship in rural and urban communities in England and Aotearoa New Zealand: A comparative secondary analysis

c) Katherine Smith (University of York), Aniela Wenham (University of York)
Places and Spaces for Young People: The social policy of placebased factors upon young people’s lives in a ‘left-behind’ coastal town
 

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CALL FOR PAPERS - PSA 2024 ANNUAL CONFERENCE 25-27 MARCH 2024 IN GLASGOW

DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS 2 SEPTEMBER 2023 

NEW LOGISTICS: PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACT ONLY VIA THIS ONLINE FORM: https://forms.gle/CbfHFcCMRbG8KrMe8

We are pleased to announce that the call for papers for the 2024 PSA Annual Conference in Glasgow is now open.

The 74th PSA conference will be convened by the University of Strathclyde and will be held in person in Glasgow from 25-27 March 2024. Please note that the PSA24 will be run as an in-person only conference - there will be no option for online participation in 2024.

Specialist groups can submit papers before the open public call for papers, so this is your opportunity to submit your paper directly to the Young People's Politics Specialist Group via our online form and have it accepted before the public open call for papers (NB this is our new way of doing things).

We welcome proposals from researchers of all career stages, especially postgraduate and early-career researchers, on one of the following topics:

• Young People’s Politics and the role of place in political participation (panel 1)

• Young People’s Politics, activism, protest, people’s futures and intergenerationality (panel 2)

• Young People’s Politics, electoral (non)participation, voting, youth wings and youth representation (panel 3)

• Young People’s Politics, (in)equalities and (in)justices (panel 4)

• Young People’s Politics, methodological and ethical challenges of doing research with young people on political engagement (panel 5)

• Young People’s Politics - open traditional panel - all suggestions welcome (panel 6)

Please submit your proposal no later than Saturday, 2 September 2023 using this form:

https://forms.gle/CbfHFcCMRbG8KrMe8 

Please note that we do not accept submissions via email this year. We accept one proposed submission per person and reserve the right to make the final paper allocation. We may accept your paper for a different panel.

We will inform you by mid-September if you have been accepted and then send you further details of how to register for the conference and upload your abstract/paper.

Note that papers not accepted can be submitted by PSA’s general call that comes later on.

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PSA Conference - Liverpool, 3-5 April 2023

Young People's Politics Programme 

Sunday (2nd April)

From 6.30pm - join us at the Brass Monkey for a Young People's Politics 'Early arrivers get together' 

Monday (3rd April)

9.30-11.00am (RB/301, LJM) Young People's Poltics and Environmental Activism 

9.30-11.00am (Rendall Building Seminar Room 8) The Normative and Empirical Implications of Young People's Politics

11.30-1.30pm (RB/301, LJM) Annual Young People's Politics Specialist Group Meeting with Lunch

1.30-3.00pm (RB/301, LJM)Young People's Politics and Research Methods: Papers and Workshop

3.30-5.00pm (RB/301, LJM) Young People's Politics and CitizenshipFrom

From 7.30pm - join us at the Brass Monkey for an informal get together Young People's Politics Specialist Group 

Tuesday (4th April)

9.30-11.00am (RB/301, LMJ) Young People's Politics and Social Inequalities

3.30-5.00pm (RB/301, LJM)Young People's Politics and Electoral Politics

Wednesday (5th of April)

9.30-11.00am (RB/319, LJM) Roundtable: Beehive Hackthon! Climate Change, Future Cities and Young People