Turning Youth Voice into Sustainable Public Policy: The Promise of Urban Democracy

Challenging traditional narratives on youth engagement, this book examines how democracy can be reimagined as grassroots engagement with local policy makers between elections. The book explores a unique blend of under-researched themes including the everyday politics of young people, the interface between civic authorities and young citizens in policy making and the promise of urban democracy. Offering a rare policy-based and youth-centred approach to young people and democratic participation, this book recasts the existing democratic deficit as a failure in public policy and calls for researchers and policy makers to focus on how to amplify young people’s voices in a more inclusive and meaningful way, to turn youth voice into sustainable public policy. The civic mentoring model developed with young Londoners offers practical steps for making this happen.