We take this opportunity to invite you to contribute a chapter to an upcoming edited volume titled “Youth, Sustainable Development Agendas and Future Earth”. This book aims to critically examine the intersection of youth engagement, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the broader vision of a Future Earth.
The book specifically seeks to advance scholarly discourse by exploring the roles, challenges, and contributions of young people in achieving the SDGs and shaping the Future Earth framework. Recognising the underrepresentation of youth perspectives in sustainable development policymaking and implementation, it aims to highlight their agency, aspirations, and innovative contributions. Importantly, by foregrounding youth voices, this collection will underscore their significance and role as key stakeholders in global sustainability and future earth efforts.
This volume, to be published by Palgrave Macmillan and officially endorsed by the International Geographical Union Commission for Young and Early Career Geographers (IGU-YECG), is expected to foster a dynamic, interdisciplinary dialogue on youth and sustainable development. It seeks to bring together interdisciplinary perspectives from geography, environmental sciences, development studies, youth and sustainability studies, sociology, and related disciplines.
Proposed Themes for the Volume
We welcome empirical, theoretical, and policy-driven contributions that engage with the key themes, including but not limited to:
- Global Best Practices and Case Studies: Examples from diverse regions showcasing different innovative, youth-driven approaches dimensions of sustainability from diverse regions around the world.
- Youth Agency: Youth’s agency in driving sustainability through grassroots cultural and community-led initiatives.
- Youth in Policy and Governance: The critical role of youth in shaping sustainability policies, decision-making and governance at local, regional, national and global scales.
- Participatory Research and Youth Engagement: Methodologies that prioritise youth participation in sustainability research and co-creation of knowledge.
- Youth in Leadership: Political agency of youth in advancing global citizenship, sustainability and social transformation.
- Cultural Reconnection: The role of cultural heritage and identity in empowering youth as agents of sustainability, for example, Reconnecting With Your Culture (RWYC) framework.
You are requested to submit the abstract (200- 250 words) by 30 May 2025 to gauravsikkageo@gmail.com and komaliy@wlv.ac.uk. Further details are available in the attached brochure.