Youth Civic Engagement: A Global Perspective

The promotion of civic engagement is critical for all societies. When people care about the well-being of their communities and take action to address issues or make a positive change, everyone benefits. However, we often ignore or overlook the participation of young people in civic life. Giving youth opportunities to be involved in solving community challenges and learning about political processes and governmental institutions fosters positive youth development. It helps them to become productive members of society and agile leaders of tomorrow. In this chapter, we employed a global perspective to understand youth civic engagement around the world, examine trends in civic participation, identify factors that promote engagement, and finally conclude with some strategies to pave the way forward in civic engagement scholarship and practice.