Discrimination and Inclusion in Youth Leisure

Dear Colleagues,

Discrimination in all its forms remains a critical issue, particularly within leisure settings that are often assumed to be barrier-free, inclusive, and beneficial. Although advocates and policymakers extoll the virtues of leisure participation and its ability to promote social cohesion and life skill development, these environments can also be sites of exclusion and inequity. In fact, discriminatory behavior—whether systemic, interpersonal, or institutional—is widely reported both anecdotally and scientifically within various leisure sub-sectors. Traditional leisure offers (e.g., museums, theatres, and sport clubs) are often less accessible to diverse or vulnerable groups, and there are numerous cultural, linguistic, and financial barriers that limit participation in leisure activities. These barriers are especially pronounced among youth, whose participation in organized leisure tends to decline significantly during adolescence.

Taking a broad view of leisure—including sport, cultural offers of every kind (ranging from subcultural activities to so-called ‘high’-culture formats), events, and more—this Special Issue aims to shed light on the relationship between leisure and discrimination amongst youth, as well as investigate approaches to ensure greater inclusion and diversity within youth leisure settings. It focuses deliberately on offline or real-life leisure activities, as these require different structural conditions than online offers. We invite contributions that explore how leisure can both reflect and challenge broader social inequalities and how inclusive practices can be fostered through policy, programming, and community engagement. Authors are encouraged to engage critically with concepts of discrimination and inclusion and to consider the implications of their findings from practical and theoretical perspectives.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Experiences of discrimination in various leisure settings, including sport, culture, arts, events, and more;
• The impact of discrimination on leisure participation;
• Studies of interventions or initiatives that support leisure inclusion;
• Analyses of the role of policy in fostering leisure inclusion;
• Intersectional approaches to understanding exclusion in leisure;
• Comparative studies across countries or cultural contexts;
• Youth-led initiatives or participatory research promoting inclusive leisure.

We look forward to receiving your contributions!

Prof. Dr. Louis Moustakas
Prof. Dr. Agnes Bidmon
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Youth is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• leisure
• sport
• culture
• arts
• events
• discrimination
• exclusion
• power inequalities
• racism
• sexism
• homophobia
• inclusion
• accessibility