YOUNG
YOUNG – Nordic Journal of Youth Research is an international, peer-reviewed journal publishing high-quality interdisciplinary scholarship on youth and young people. Founded in 1993 within the Nordic research community, it has become a leading forum for global youth studies. We are particularly interested in publishing theoretical and empirical work that places young people’s experiences, cultural practices, and social positions at the centre of analysis. We are open to diverse methodologies—qualitative, quantitative, comparative, ethnographic, or mixed-methods settings—but expect that in all research designs youth is treated as having intrinsic value instead of considering them merely as an instrumental sample, as a risk group or as a phase of incompleteness. By placing young people’s perspectives and conditions at the centre, YOUNG advances critical debates and fosters dialogue across the field of youth research worldwide.
We welcome manuscripts between 5000 and 8000 words (including references, tables, figures and notes). All submissions are subject to peer review through a double-blind reviewing process.
YOUNG is a fully Gold Open Access journal. The journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Endorsements
“As the former managing editor, I wholeheartedly endorse YOUNG as a vital platform for advancing youth research globally. The journal provides a space for ethically grounded scholarship that centers young people's perspectives in all their diversity. It encourages scholars to reflect deeply on their ethical responsibility to produce knowledge about youth in ways that valorise their agency and lived realities. Crucially, YOUNG recognises the value of youth-centred knowledge as a vital resource for shaping inclusive and sustainable societies.” – Prof. Päivi Honkatukia, Faculty of Social Sciences (Youth Work and Youth Research), Tampere University
“YOUNG has earned its reputation as a journal at the forefront of the field of youth studies. Truly international, the journal is devoted to advancing thinking about contemporary youth and the issues that impact on young people’s lives. Its interdisciplinary nature ensures that it features articles that advance thinking about youth studies, challenge orthodoxies and open up understanding of diverse young lives.” – Prof. Johanna Wyn, Youth Research Centre, The University of Melbourne
“YOUNG is the main academic forum for truly interdisciplinary youth research, covering among other areas sociological, anthropological, educational and media studies perspectives on youth, youth cultures and questions related to young people more generally. An indispensable read for anyone interested in the research area.” — Prof. Göran Bolin, Culture and Education, Södertörn University
“Already its first volume back in 1993 empowered youth studies by making innovative interdisciplinary and transnational moves that remain vital to the contemporary research agenda.” — Prof. Johan Fornäs,
Professor Emeritus in Media and Communication Studies, Södertörn University
“Sub-titled the 'Nordic Journal of Youth Research', YOUNG does much more than give space to the very well-established expertise in youth research found in the Nordic countries. To me, YOUNG is one of only a very few journals that can be relied upon so consistently to publish new, critical research and theory about youth and young people that is important internationally.” — Prof. Robert MacDonald, Honorary Professor, Department of Sociology, Durham University and Emeritus Professor, School of Education, University of Huddersfield
YOUNG – Nordic Journal of Youth Research provides a forum for analytical, critical, and interdisciplinary research on youth and young people. The journal’s aim is to strengthen youth studies as a distinct field of inquiry by publishing work that explicitly engages with and advances debates in social scientific youth research. We encompass areas, such as youth leisure and culture, transitions, participation in society and emerging trends and challenges for young lives, while maintaining youth research as its main reference point. The journal approaches youth not as a fixed age group, but as a life perspective, a cultural practice, a social position, or a generational identity—situated within broader structures across societies.
We encourage submissions that engage critically with the traditions and debates of youth research, explicitly positioning their contribution within the field. We are particularly interested in contributions that analyze how young people actively navigate, resist, and reshape social conditions, and how societies in turn define, regulate, and imagine youth. Manuscripts can draw on diverse methodologies, from ethnography to quantitative analysis, while keeping young people’s perspectives at the centre. The journal does not accept work that treats youth merely as a convenient sample or an instrumental category detached from its social meaning.
By articulating a distinct scope, YOUNG seeks to maintain its role as a leading international journal for youth studies. Rooted in a Nordic tradition of interdisciplinarity, we now welcome contributions from all regions and contexts, provided they advance the field of youth research as a critical and evolving scholarly arena.
Manuscripts should generally be between 5,000 and 8,000 words (including references, tables, figures and notes). All submissions are subject to peer review through a double-anonymized reviewing process. For more author instructions, please see Submission Guidelines.
| Malin Fransberg | Finnish Youth Research Society, Helsinki, Finland |
| Antti Kivijärvi | The Finnish Youth Research Society, Helsinki, Finland |
| Nadezhda Vasileva | Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland |
| Susanna Ågren | Faculty of Social Sciences/Youth Research, Tampere University, Finland |
| Kalle Berggren | Department of Child and Youth Studies, Stockholm University, Sweden |
| Shane Blackman | Canterbury Christ Church University, UK |
| Gemma Commane | School of Media, Birmingham City University, UK |
| Lars Roar Frøyland | Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway |
| Ann-Karina Henriksen | Copenhagen University College, Frederiksberg, Denmark |
| Christer Hyggen | Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway |
| Magnus Kilger | Department of Child and Youth Studies, Stockholm University, Sweden |
| Hannah King | Department of Sociology, University of Durham, UK |
| Maria Klingenberg | Uppsala University, Sweden |
| Yana Krupets | Department of Sociology and Centre for Youth Studies, HSE University, St. Petersburg, Russia |
| Göran Bolin | Södertörn University, Sweden |
| Les Back | Goldsmiths College, United Kingdom |
| Vinod Chandra | Lucknow University, India |
| Carmen Leccardi | University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy |
| Sunaina Maira | University of California, Davis, USA |
| Anne Scott Sørensen | University of Southern Denmark, Denmark |
| Lucia Rabello de Castro | Uni. Rio de Janeiro |
| Carles Feixa Pàmpols | Pompeu Fabra University, Spain |
| Ann Phoenix | University College London, UK |
| Karen Valentin | University of Aarhus, Denmark |
| Johanna Wyn | University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Siyka Kovacheva | University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria |
| Pun Ngai | The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong |
| Christopher T Conner | University of Missouri, USA |
| Dorothy Tukahabwa | University of Rwanda, Republic of Rwanda |
| Mengyao Jiang | Qingdao University, China |
| Mounir Saidani | Tunis Al-Manar University, Republic of Tunisia |
| Adrian Scribano | University of Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Madgerie Jameson-Charles | University of The West Indies, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago |
| Claire Paterson-Young | University of Northampton, United Kingdom |
| Hernan Cuervo | University of Melbourne, Australia |
Manuscript submission guidelines can be accessed on Sage Journals.