Social Justice Youth Development through Sport and Physical Activity

Dear Colleagues,

Ever-present but further exacerbated and exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, political and civil conflict, and the ongoing realities of colonization, racial oppression as well as gender and gender identity inequity and violence have rightfully garnered increased platforms and dialogue on issues of social justice. Social justice is a broad, and at times, contested term. It is frequently used and aspired to, but rarely clearly defined. This broad conceptualization offers both challenges and opportunities for scholars and practitioners working at the intersection of youth development, social justice, sport, and physical activity. This Special Issue aims to highlight cross- and interdisciplinary work under the broad umbrella of social justice youth development through sport and physical activity. We adopt a definition of social justice youth development offered by the Center for Social Justice Youth Development Research, which states that it is: “focused on creating equitable access and opportunities for all youth by actively reducing or eliminating disparities in education, health, employment, justice, and any other system that hinders the development of young people” (Outley, Brown, Gabriel, Sullins, 2018, p. 486, informed by Ginwright and Cammarota, 2002).

We are interested in, but not limited to, pieces that contribute to the theoretical, methodological, and practical aspects of youth development through sport and physical activity for social justice across a wide array of sport and physical activity-related topics and disciplines including social work, sport and exercise science, sport management, sport for development, sociology, cultural studies, gender studies, education, public policy, and more.

Dr. Kalyn McDonough
Dr. Kelly Clanchy
Dr. Michael A. Hemphill
Dr. Tarkington J. Newman
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com 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 submissions that pass pre-check are 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 single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Youth is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). 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.

• social justice
• youth development
• sport
• physical activity
• equity