This Worldwide Universities Network Study Group provides the opportunity for coordinated research and exchange of knowledge among an international community of academics, practitioners and policy-makers dedicated to understanding and developing civic engagement and learning in youth online environments.

Digital media are increasingly seen as channels for engaging young people with existing democratic institutions and practices. In addition, online spaces such as MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, SecondLife, YouTube and mobile texting may offer platforms for debates and awareness of lifestyle politics.

There are also many online sites that specifically address youth engagement. Yet they offer uneven opportunities for expression and action, and often restrict the full potential of interactive media and public networking that digital technologies offer. These environments warrant our exploration to determine the conditions under which they may become active arenas for the development of civic skills.

The WUN Networking Young Citizens group addresses such questions as:

• What aspects of civic and citizenship learning transfer from classrooms to online environments, and what new vic practices are emerging online?
  
• How can new Web 2.0 tools and social networking applications help young people develop new civic capacities?
  
• How can traditional institutions of political socialization respond to new youth media practices?
  
• How might new social movements relate both to youth culture and mainstream politics through the use of new media?
  
• What civic learning goals and opportunities can we identify in different online environments?

last revised 11/26/2008