Youth Justice: Critical Perspectives on Power, Precarity and Future Landscapes
A special issue of Youth (ISSN 2673-995X).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 26 October 2026 | Viewed by 510
Special Issue Editors
Interests: youth sociopolitical development; youth organizing; youth participatory action research (YPAR) methodology; technology; systems-change; youth development
Interests: adolescence and young adulthood; digital activism; youth civic engagement; sociopolitical development; critical consciousness; youth activism and organizing
Interests: youth mental health; collective efficacy; social cohesion; crisis response models; at-promise youth paradigms to mitigate trauma; including community violence; state-sanctioned violence; mass and school mass shootings; historical trauma
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Youth experience is shaped by a series of paradoxes. Adolescents and young adults are the most digitally connected generation in history, yet they report increasingly higher levels of isolation and lack of social connectedness. Being a youth is often positioned as a period for growth and opportunity, and they are society’s future. However, youth are facing an existential climate crisis, economic instability, and political polarization, leaving many feeling pessimistic, hopeless, or helpless. Nonetheless, youth are also resisting political suppression and navigating crisis in ways that may open up new avenues for society and social movements for justice. Some youth are quietly resisting by withdrawing from harmful social institutions, systems, and norms. Youth and adults are also working together to build power and forge new paths. Rather than viewing ‘youth’ as a transitional stage towards adulthood or the future, we seek articles that situate youth as a critical site of political struggle and radical imagination where a different world is possible. The Special Issue, “Youth Justice: Critical Perspectives on Power, Precarity and Future Landscapes” seeks a collection of interdisciplinary voices to interrogate shifts in power and precarity that shape the lives of young people today.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Youth definitions and visions of justice.
- Youth justice across international and political contexts.
- Political repression, suppression,and resistance.
- Linking youth justice and youth development.
- Intergenerational partnerships for justice/ intergenerational organizing.
- Technology.
- Youth organizing and/or critical consciousness.
- Critical youth work.
- Dismantling adultism.
- Critical approaches to research with youth.
- Emancipatory and anti-oppressive practice.
- Racial, climate, gender, and immigrant justice.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Angie Malorni
Dr. Sara Wilf
Dr. Caroline N. Sharkey
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 double-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.
Keywords
- critical youth work
- youth organizing
- social & environmental justice
- power
- critical consciousness
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