“Political and Civic Engagement in Youth”
A Topical Issue of the Zeitschrift für Psychologie
In recent years, there have been antithetical patterns of youth political and civic engagement. Many young people are disinterested in politics and political participation, whereas others are active political actors, some of whom participate in acts of political violence and terror. What are the factors that lead some to be politically active and others not? How and why are some young people prone to violent extremism? Moreover, in times of crisis where the social fabric is endangered, it is important to understand the position that young people might take between apathy and participation.
Social psychological research has proposed factors that influence political and civic engagement and participation in collective action, such as group identification, dual identities, perceived discrimination, political attitudes and ideologies, motivations, and emotions. Do these factors explain youth political participation and civic engagement? Are there particularities in political and civic engagement associated with youth? Moreover, nowadays, patterns of engagement and actions of participation are changing and new forms of activism have appeared in relation to new technologies and social media. What are the implications of these changes for youth political and civic engagement?
In this topical issue of the Zeitschrift für Psychologie, social psychology partners with developmental psychology in order to focus on youth political and civic engagement and its antecedents and consequences for the individual and society. By youth, we mean young people aged between 15 and 25 years old. We invite papers that engage with the concept of youth civic and political participation from different areas of psychology, in different contexts, at different levels of analysis, and using different methodologies. In addition to full original or review articles, shorter research notes and opinion papers are also welcome. Interested authors are invited to submit their abstracts on potential papers electronically to the guest editors Xenia Chryssochoou (xeniachr@panteion.
How to submit: Interested authors should submit a letter of intent including: (1) a working title for the manuscript, (2) names, affiliations, and contact information for all authors, and (3) an abstract of no more than 500 words detailing the content of the proposed manuscript.
There is a two-stage submissions process. Initially, interested authors are requested to submit only abstracts of their proposed papers. Authors of the selected abstracts will then be invited to submit full papers. All papers will undergo blind peer review.
- Deadline for submission of abstracts is October 15, 2016.
- Deadline for submission of full papers is February 15, 2017.
The journal seeks to maintain a short turnaround time, with the final version of the accepted papers being due by June 15, 2017. The topical issue will be published as issue 4 (2017).
For additional information, please contact either of the guest editors.
About the Journal
The Zeitschrift für Psychologie, founded in 1890, is the oldest psychology journal in Europe and the second oldest in the world. One of the founding editors was Hermann Ebbinghaus. Since 2007 it is published in English and devoted to publishing topical issues that provide state-of-the-art reviews of current research in psychology.
For detailed author guidelines, please see the journal’s website at www.hogrefe.com/journals/zfp/
