Gender in Youth Participation: Practices and Cultures

The phenomenon of youth participation has come to occupy a central place in contemporary sociological, political and cultural inquiry. In both scholarly and policy discourses, youth are frequently portrayed as pivotal agents of democratic renewal, social innovation, and cultural transformation. However, this pervasive focus has frequently entailed an unmarked and ostensibly neutral subject – “the youth” – whose identity remains implicitly male, heteronormative, cisgendered, and often white (Corrigan 1979; Willis 1979). Consequently, youth studies have exhibited a form of gender-blindness, either overlooking the role of gender altogether or addressing it narrowly through the lens of young women’s experiences, often without intersectional or relational depth. The articles introduces the general perspective framing a special issue of the journal SocietàMutamentoPolitica which aims to explore the intersections of age and gender in youth participation.