Originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, this volume explores how researchers, educators, artists, and scholars can collaborate with, and engage young people in art, creative practice, and research to work towards social justice and political engagement.

By critically interrogating the dominant discourses, cultural, and structural obstacles that we all face today, this volume explores the potential of critical arts pedagogies and community-based research projects to empower young people as agents of social change. Chapters offer nuanced analyses of the limits of arts-based social justice collaborations, and grapple with key ethical, practical, and methodological issues that can arise in creative approaches to youth participatory action research. Theoretical contributions are enhanced by Notes from the Field, which highlight prime examples of arts-based youth work occurring across North America. As a whole, the volume powerfully advocates for collaborative creative practices that facilitate young people to build power, hope, agency, and skills through creative social engagement.

This volume will be of interest to scholars, researchers, postgraduate students, and scholar-practitioners involved in community- and arts-based research and education, as well as those working with marginalized youth to improve their opportunities and access to a quality education and to deepen their political participation and engagement in intergenerational partnerships aiming to increase the conditions for social justice.

Kristen P. Goessling is Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State University, Brandywine, United States.

Dana E. Wright is Associate Professor in the School of Education at Mills College, United States.

Amanda C. Wager is a Canada Research Chair in Community Research in Arts, Culture & Education and Professor in the Faculty of Education at Vancouver Island University, Canada.

Marit Dewhurst is Director of Art Education and Associate Professor of Art and Museum Education at The City College of New York, United States.