It’s been a minute: Decolonizing the concepts of participation and time in the study of youth, news, and civic engagement

Political participation and civic engagement are both concepts that are well-established in the fields of political communication and media studies, and both terms include a broad swath of activities. In this presentation, I will argue for the necessity of integrating current thinking from decolonization into the concept of participation, with a specific focus on the notion of time. I do this in order to come to terms more effectively with the ways that digital and mobile media have prompted a rethinking of what participation means, and what both young people and adults might hope for in the way of participation. The presentation draws on ethnographic studies I have conducted in partnership with U.S. colleagues who have some shared affinities with the young people at the center of our study. My colleagues Johnny Ramirez, Carlos Jimenez, Angel Hinzo, and Badiah Haffejee, with their commitments to decolonizing pedagogies, have taken the lead as partners in understanding the experiences and perspectives of those we study who live in lower income U.S. neighbourhoods who have experienced various forms of marginalization as Black, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous persons in the U.S. Viewing issues of participation and experiences with time from the perspectives of these young people, the presentation will discuss ideas of belonging and exclusion, the role of news and information in the development of oppositional consciousness, and emergent opportunity structures for youth civic engagement and political identity formation.

Lynn Schofield Clark, Ph.D.
Research Fellow at Södertörn University and  Distinguished Professor at the University of Denver 
Author, Young People and the Future of News (with Regina Marchi)