The panel addressed key questions: How are young people navigating and reshaping democratic spaces and citizenship concepts in response to contemporary issues, such as social inequality, digital activism, and environmental challenges? What role do civic education programs play in empowering youth to protest and to critique? It also considered comparative perspectives, analyzing how global, national and regional contexts impact young people's civic engagement and their ability to envision and advocate for inclusive citizenship futures. Bringing together plural research positions and empirical insights from citizenship and civic education research, this panel did welcome papers that examine the mechanisms at work when active citizenship(s) are addressed among youth.

By highlighting youth perspectives, we hope to underscore the importance of adapting civic learning spaces to better support young people as active agents of change. Ultimately, this panel seeks to contribute to a broader discussion on the role of young people addressing their citizenship futures in societies under stress.

The following four Papers were discussed: 

• Guerin, Laurence/van Stapele, Naomi: "Democratizing Education Through Inclusive Participation" 
• Del Angel-Iglesias, Maria/Caliskan, Ömer/Karakus, Mehmet: "Mapping Research on European Citizenship and Democracy: A Bibliometric Analysis"
• Kramar, Martina/Szukala, Andrea: "(Uncovering) Everyday Notions of European Citizenship and Democracy: Potentials and Limitations of Participatory Action Research Approaches" 
• Ziel, Jana: "Epistemic Citizenship: Navigating Epistemic Authority in Digital Educational Settings"