#youthaction
Becoming Political in the Digital Age (HC)

A volume in Adolescence and Education

Series Editor Ben Kirshner, University of Colorado

Social media and digital tools permeate the everyday lives of young people. In the early

stages of commentary about the impact of the digital age on civic life, debates revolved

around whether the Internet enhanced or discouraged civic and political action. Since then

we have seen new media move to center stage in politics and activism--from the 2008 US

election to the 2011 Arab Spring to the Occupy movement. We have also seen new patterns

in how different sub-groups make use of digital media. These developments have

pushed people to move beyond questions about whether new media are good or bad for

civic life, to ask instead: how, under what conditions, and for whom, do new digital tools become resources for political critique

and action by the young

This book will provide a platform for a new wave of scholarship about young people's political participation in the digital

age. We define "youth" or "young people" as roughly between the ages of 12 and 25. We include perspectives from political

science, education, cultural studies, learning sciences, and youth development. We draw on the framework developed

by the MacArthur Research Network on Youth and Participatory Politics (Cohen, Kahne, Bowyer, Middaugh, &

Rogowski, 2012), which defines participatory politics as, "interactive, peer-based

acts through which individuals and groups seek to exert both voice and influence on

issues of public concern."