Community-Based Research as Civic Action: An Example From the Youth Research Council

Literature on civic engagement has long held an adult bias and is rooted in understandings of civic participation undertaken by adults, not youth. Youth are rarely treated as civic actors in their own right, but instead as would-be civic actors. We make a case for building social science research capacity as a critical tool for civic action, especially salient for groups working toward organizational, institutional, and/or legislative change and encapsulated in youth participatory action research (YPAR). To explore the link between social science research and civic involvement we take as a case a formally organized Youth Research Council (YRC), founded to support youth civic action, build young people’s civic tools and social science research capacity, and provide opportunity for adult allies to partner with youth in support of youth-led civic interests. We explore the impact of the YRC as a durable organizational conduit to promote youth civic involvement and support movements and initiatives working toward greater community-based data justice and we identify a set of replicable practices for local adoption of youth research councils.