IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/comdev/v45y2014i4p300-316.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding youth civic engagement: debates, discourses, and lessons from practice

Author

Listed:
  • Aileen Shaw
  • Bernadine Brady
  • Brian McGrath
  • Mark A. Brennan
  • Pat Dolan

Abstract

While civic engagement provides a rich rationale for intervention, the array of discourses urging a focus on youth engagement or action means that the concept can be confusing, cluttered, and lacking consistent operationalization. From the perspective of policy-makers and program managers, it can be challenging to disentangle the competing messages and assumptions about young people that underpin the rhetoric in relation to youth engagement. Using a wide range of international research, the purpose of this paper is to provide clarity regarding the key multiple concepts and issues pertinent to the concept of youth civic engagement. In particular, the paper answers the following questions: what are the definitions, typologies, and discourses in which the concept of youth civic engagement operates, and what are the putative beneficial outcomes of youth engagement identified? We also discuss some of the broader considerations on the positioning of young people in society, which impact the trajectory of civic engagement efforts. As a means for reflecting on their own practices, programs, and approaches, our intent is to provide those involved in both the application and research of youth engagement with a more coherent roadmap of the diversity residing in this field.

Suggested Citation

  • Aileen Shaw & Bernadine Brady & Brian McGrath & Mark A. Brennan & Pat Dolan, 2014. "Understanding youth civic engagement: debates, discourses, and lessons from practice," Community Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(4), pages 300-316, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:comdev:v:45:y:2014:i:4:p:300-316
    DOI: 10.1080/15575330.2014.931447
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/15575330.2014.931447
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/15575330.2014.931447?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roger A. Hart, 1992. "Children's Participation: From tokenism to citizenship," Papers inness92/6, Innocenti Essay.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ana Fernandes & Teresa Proença & Marisa R. Ferreira & Arminda Paço, 2021. "Does youth civic engagement enhance social and academic performance?," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 18(2), pages 273-293, June.
    2. Paul Alhassan Issahaku & Anda Adam, 2022. "Young People in Newfoundland and Labrador: Community Connectedness and Opportunities for Social Inclusion," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(3), pages 21582440221, July.
    3. José Abreu & Marisa R. Ferreira & Beatriz Casais, 2021. "Empowering the Community or Escape Daily Routine—A Voluntourism Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-14, October.
    4. Brady, Bernadine & Chaskin, Robert J. & McGregor, Caroline, 2020. "Promoting civic and political engagement among marginalized urban youth in three cities: Strategies and challenges," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mona Treude & Ralf Schüle & Hans Haake, 2022. "Smart Sustainable Cities—Case Study Südwestfalen Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-16, May.
    2. Richard Peter Bailey & Suria Angit, 2022. "Conceptualising Inclusion and Participation in the Promotion of Healthy Lifestyles," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-14, August.
    3. Richard Maclure, 2017. "Youth Reflexivity as Participatory Research in Senegal: A Field Study of Reciprocal Learning and Incremental Transformations," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(3), pages 251-261.
    4. Gazit, Matan & Perry-Hazan, Lotem, 2020. "Disadvantaged youth’s participation in collective decision making," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    5. Duramy, Benedetta Faedi & Gal, Tali, 2020. "Understanding and implementing child participation: Lessons from the Global South," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    6. Matthew Morton & Paul Montgomery, 2010. "PROTOCOL: Youth empowerment programs for improving self‐efficacy and self‐esteem of adolescents," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(1), pages 1-38.
    7. Nir, Tal & Perry-Hazan, Lotem, 2016. "The framed right to participate in municipal youth councils and its educational impact," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 174-183.
    8. Harriet Thew & Lucie Middlemiss & Jouni Paavola, 2022. "“You Need a Month’s Holiday Just to Get over It!” Exploring Young People’s Lived Experiences of the UN Climate Change Negotiations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-21, April.
    9. Marta Estellés & Francisco José Amo & Jesús Romero, 2021. "The Consensus on Citizenship Education Purposes in Teacher Education," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-19, May.
    10. Haarberg, Frøydis Lønborg, 2024. "What do we know about children’s representation in child protection decisions? A scoping review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    11. Sollis, Kate & Yap, Mandy & Campbell, Paul & Biddle, Nicholas, 2022. "Conceptualisations of wellbeing and quality of life: A systematic review of participatory studies," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    12. Lynne O. Cairns & Rongedzayi Fambasayi & Rejoice Shamiso Katsidzira & Predrag Milić & Jua Cilliers & Paula Barros, 2024. "Laying the Foundations for a Child-Focused Cities Analytical Framework: Reflections From an International, Interdisciplinary Collaboration," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9.
    13. Ruff, Saralyn C. & Harrison, Kristi, 2020. "“Ask Me What I Want”: Community-based participatory research to explore transition-age foster Youth’s use of support services," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    14. Marcus Bhargava & Lee Jerome, 2020. "Training Teachers for and through Citizenship: Learning from Citizenship Experiences," Societies, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-12, April.
    15. Perry-Hazan, Lotem, 2016. "Children's participation in national policymaking: “You're so adorable, adorable, adorable! I'm speechless; so much fun!”," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 105-113.
    16. van Bijleveld, G.G. & Dedding, C.W.M. & Bunders-Aelen, J.F.G., 2014. "Seeing eye to eye or not? Young people's and child protection workers' perspectives on children's participation within the Dutch child protection and welfare services," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(P3), pages 253-259.
    17. Harder, Annemiek T. & Mann-Feder, Varda & Oterholm, Inger & Refaeli, Tehila, 2020. "Supporting transitions to adulthood for youth leaving care: Consensus based principles," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    18. Kristi Paron, 2024. "Exploring Child-Patient Autonomy: Findings from an Ethnographic Study of Clinic Visits by Children," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 17(1), pages 99-121, February.
    19. Balsells, M. Ángeles & Fuentes-Peláez, Nuria & Pastor, Crescencia, 2017. "Listening to the voices of children in decision-making: A challenge for the child protection system in Spain," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 418-425.
    20. Daphna Gross-Manos & Hanita Kosher & Asher Ben-Arieh, 2021. "Research with Children: Lessons Learned from the International Survey of Children’s Wellbeing," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(5), pages 2097-2118, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:comdev:v:45:y:2014:i:4:p:300-316. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RCOD20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.