*CFP* "DIGITAL YOUTH AND RELIGION", BOOK CHAPTER

Public and academic discourse on the online activities of youth have been stormy and ambivalent at times. Nevertheless, a significant body of work has been devoted to the grass-rooted workings of youth on new media platforms, albeit in adolescents’ autonomous settings, such as social media (e.g., Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube), online gaming, and interpersonal communication (e.g., instant messaging, WhatsApp). While past scholarship has yielded a rich offering of insight into these activities, there is a clear dearth of research on the online social worlds of religious youth. Nowadays, youth are afforded multiple venues of religious creeds and interpretations in unprecedented formats and channels. These channels enable access to youth outreach, foster communal participation, and shape youths’ identities, belief systems, and affiliation to (or from) religious institutions.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to draw together concepts, theories, and empirical data related to the study of three legacies: youth cultures, digital culture, and religious studies. We invite scholars that study different societies, faiths, cults, and sects from interdisciplinary fields (e.g., media studies, sociology, anthropology, semiotics, cultural studies, religious studies) to submit a proposal.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

• religious youth as media producers and participants; 
• social representation of religious youth on social media; 
• religious youth mobilization: constructing global and regional communities; 
• religious youth movements’ online representation and activities; 
• creating religious youth subcultures through social media; 
• identity work among religious youth communities and networks; 
• religious authority and youth in online informal contexts: bloggers/vloggers, social media moderators, online peer leaders; 
• methodological challenges to and possibilities for the study of religious youths’ online activities; 
• shaping youth’s spiritual beliefs through digital game design and gameplay; and 
• religious youth’s deviance: adolescent engagement in religious transgressions and taboos.

 

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at MDPI by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

No-APC: No article processing charge will be requested from authors at any stage of the publication process.

 

Keywords: religious youth, religious cultural groups, youth subcultures, religious authority, religious identity, online identities, social media, digital religion, gaming culture

 

Special Issue Editor:

Dr. Oren Golan (oren.golan@edtech.haifa.ac.il)

Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Abba Khoushy Ave 199, Haifa, 3498838, Israel