Rethinking Citizenship and Protest: The Dynamics of Youth Digital Activism in Repressive Political Contexts

The field of digital activism has rapidly evolved as a pivotal domain in the study of youth resistance and political participation, particularly within restrictive and repressive political environments. In recent years, young people have leveraged digital platforms not only for communication but as arenas for contesting power, expressing dissent, and pushing back against state-imposed limitations. Key frameworks such as Gaventa’s “power cube” and Habermas’s concept of the public sphere have been instrumental in shaping our understanding of these dynamics. However, the unique qualities of digital platforms—fragmentation, algorithmic mediation, and pervasive surveillance—pose new challenges and opportunities for activism. Recent scholarship, including that of Roberts, Castells, and Mare, has revealed that digital activism cannot simply be mapped onto existing models of political engagement; instead, it highlights shifting boundaries between participation, visibility, and vulnerability, underscoring pressing questions about agency, control, and reconfigured modes of citizenship.

The latest research demonstrates that youth are actively transforming digital spaces into sites of political intervention by subverting institutional barriers and inventing new forms of engagement, as seen in grassroots movements and case studies from diverse regions such as Madagascar. These interventions often blur the line between control and resistance, as online campaigns operate within surveillance-laden infrastructures yet still foster collective identities and cross-border solidarity. Despite important advances in understanding how digital spaces can galvanise protest, significant gaps remain—particularly around the ways power, participation, and citizenship are contested and redefined through digital activism in environments where communication is tightly controlled.

This Research Topic aims to advance theoretical and empirical work at the intersection of digital activism, youth agency, and political resistance. It seeks to broaden the conceptual vocabulary surrounding digital citizenship by examining how young people redefine engagement, freedom, and authority in spaces marked by surveillance, algorithmic control, and limited civic participation. Key questions include: How do youth use digital tools to challenge restrictive regimes? How are traditional concepts of participation and citizenship being reshaped by online interventions? How do theories by Roberts, Gaventa, Habermas, Castells, Mare, and others help us interpret the interplay between activism, surveillance, and political power?

This Research Topic will focus on youth digital activism in contexts where politics is restrictive, exploring both enabling and constraining factors. Analyses may draw from various cases, theoretical perspectives, and interdisciplinary methods, but must remain grounded in the experiences and tactics of youth. To gather further insights within these boundaries, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
• Negotiations of agency and visibility among youth in digital spaces
• Transformations of participation, freedom, and citizenship online
• Case studies of digital activism under surveillance or in authoritarian contexts
• Intersections of online and offline mobilisation and collective identity formation
• Influences of algorithmic mediation and platform governance on activism
• Theoretical syntheses or extensions informed by Habermas, Castells, Mare, Gaventa, Roberts, and related scholars
• Challenges of vulnerability, risk, and resilience among young digital activists

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

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Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Registered Report
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: youth digital activism, citizenship, political participation, authoritarian contexts, algorithmic mediation, collective identity

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.