*Volume *8*, Issue *2 *Title*: Youth Digital Participation: Opportunities, Challenges, Contexts, and What’s at Stake *Editor(s): * Neta Kligler-Vilenchik (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel) and Ioana Literat (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA) *Submission of Abstracts: *31 July 2019 *Submission of Full Papers: *10 January 2020 *Publication of the Issue: *May/June 2020 *Information: * In many ways, young people are trailblazers when it comes to digital participation. They are often the first to adopt new technologies and platforms, to experiment with modes of production and practices of sharing, and—due to the significant role that social relations play in their lives—often spend significant time and energy socializing online (Ito et al., 2009, 2019; Jenkins et al., 2016). Youth digital participation has been explored as an opportunity for areas including learning and professional development (e.g., Ito et al., 2019); self-expression and identity exploration (e.g., Renninger, 2015); social connection (e.g., Weinstein, 2018); as well as for civic and political participation and expression (e.g., Kligler-Vilenchik & Literat, 2018). At the same time, youth digital participation should not be uncritically celebrated: Rather, researchers should be cognizant of the nuances of youth participation and a focus on when, how, why and for what youth digital participation matters (Literat et al., 2018). For this issue, we invite theoretical and empirical (quantitative, qualitative or mixed-methods) papers that delve into youth digital participation from such a nuanced perspective, including papers which explore: - The potentials and opportunities for youth digital participation, including learning, self-expression, social connection, identity formation and more; - Youth civic/political expression and participation, including civic learning, cross-cutting exposure, and political socialization; - How young people’s participatory practices in digital spaces contribute (or not) to youth empowerment and agency; - Youth perspectives on their own digital participation; - Challenges and risks around youth participation; - The digital participation of marginalized youth; - Methodological perspectives and innovative approaches to studying youth digital participation; - Ethical issues related to the study of youth digital participation. These issues can be explored in relation to a variety of digital contexts, including mainstream social media platforms but also online affinity networks, smartphone applications, hybrid online/offline contexts, etc. Authors should be cognizant of strict ethical considerations regarding the use of data pertaining to minors, even when publicly available (see, e.g., Livingstone & Third, 2017; Zimmer & Kinder-Kurlanda, 2017). References: Ito, M., Baumer, S., Bittani, M., Cody, R., Stephenson, B.H., Horst, H.A., . . . Tripp, L. (2009). *Hanging out, messing around, and geeking out: Kids living and learning with new media*. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Ito, M., Martin, C., Pfister, R.C., Rafalow, M.H., Salen, K., & Wortman, A. (2019). *Affinity online: How connection and shared interest fuel learning*. New York, NY: NYU Press. Jenkins, H., Shresthova, S., Gamber-Thompson, L., Kligler-Vilenchik, N., & Zimmerman, A. (2016). *By any media necessary: The new youth activism*. New York, NY: NYU Press. Kligler-Vilenchik, N., & Literat, I. (2018). Distributed creativity as political expression: Youth responses to the 2016 US presidential election in online affinity networks. *Journal of Communication*, *68*(1), 75-97. Literat, I., Kligler-Vilenchik, N., Brough, M., & Blum-Ross, A. (2018). Analyzing youth digital participation: Aims, actors, contexts and intensities. *The Information Society*, *34*(4),261-273. Livingstone, S., & Third, A. (2017). Children and young people’s rights in the digital age: An emerging agenda. *New Media & Society*, *19*(5), 657-670. Renninger, B. (2015). “Where I can be myself… where I can speak my mind”: Networked counterpublics in a polymedia environment. *New Media & Society*, *17*(9), 1513-1529. Weinstein, E. (2018). The social media see-saw: Positive and negative influences on adolescents’ affective well-being. *New Media & Society*, *20*(10), 3597-3623. Zimmer, M., & Kinder-Kurlanda, K. (Eds.) (2017). *Internet research ethics for the social age: New challenges, cases, and contexts*. New York, NY: Peter Lang. *Instructions for Authors*: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal’s instructions for authors <https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/pages/view/forauthors>. If interested, please send an abstract of 500-600 words by email to the Editorial Office (mac@cogitatiopress.com) by 31 July 2019, referencing the thematic issue. Abstracts should include details regarding the paper’s methodological approach and its contributions to our understanding of youth digital participation. Authors will be notified about acceptance by 31 August 2019. The deadline for the submission of full papers will be 31 January 2020. Final papers should be a maximum of 8,000 words. Note that all invited articles will still go through full and anonymous peer review, and that being invited to submit a full article is no guarantee of final publication in the themed issue. *Open Access:* The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio’s Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here <https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/about/editorialPolicies#publicationFees> .