The Contribution of Democratic Citizenship Education and Youth Work to Digital Pedagogies and Digital Empowerment
Young people experience digitalisation as a reality, not as something “new.” This perception contrasts with that of older generations, who have witnessed the transition or lived through several waves of digitalisation across different areas of life—professional, personal, and social. In this sense, young people should not be reproached for a supposed lack of awareness or certain habits and practices. Instead, it is essential to consider their perspective, where digitality has been part of their everyday life from the start.
The field known as Digital Youth Work can be seen as a result of youth work that integrates the various sociopolitical and economic developments of digital transformation in a process-oriented and youth-centred way. This means accompanying the different aspects of digitalisation as they are experienced by young people in their daily lives.
This analysis aims to identify key elements in the processes of transformation within the youth field—especially those where power and emancipation are central themes. From the perspective of non-formal learning as an emancipatory and power-critical pedagogical practice, the analysis also highlights the potential of Democratic Citizenship Education and Human Rights Education (DCE/HRE) to engage in these spaces—and why DCE/HRE is a necessary perspective in debates around digital youth work, digital competence, digital citizenship education, media pedagogy, and information pedagogy.
In May, we presented the analysis and discussed its key themes across three panel sessions—one organized by our project and two by invitation of the German National Agency:
- Digital Youth Work
- The Role of Youth Workers in the Digital Age: Challenges and Opportunities in the Era of Artificial Intelligence
- How Does (European) Youth Work Support Meaningful Political Participation of Young People in a Polarised World?
We received very positive feedback, both in Leipzig and in the two days that followed in Berlin. These sessions were also a productive ideation phase in preparation for the development of the manual to be created in the next stage of the programme.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the analysis!
You can download the full document in English below.
[Download the Guide] https://dare-network.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/digital-youth-work-diyw-analysis-final.pdf
Table of Contents
Introduction
- How to Read This Analysis
- On the Terminology of Digital Youth Work
- The Political Dimension of Digitalisation
- The Post-Digital Perspective
- Youth Voices
- In Summary
Environment and Digitality
- The Material Aspects of Digitalisation
- Effects of Digitalisation on Climate Change
- The Digital Lifestyle
Identity and Digitality
- Visibility and Self-Image Construction
- The Self as Raw Material in the Digital Economy
- Health, Wellbeing, and the Physical Body
- Identification and Prediction
- Active Consumers
Digital Governance
- Who to Trust? Who to Empower?
- Bringing Order to Informational Chaos
- Working with Data
- Civic Competence and Digital Skills
Created by:
- Arbeitskreis deutscher Bildungsstätten e. V. (AdB) – Berlin, Germany
- Sozialprofil – Association for the Promotion of Individual, Institutional, and Social Development – Graz, Austria
- Dinamo – Sintra, Portugal
- Fundación CIVES – Madrid, Spain
- Partners Bulgaria Foundation – Sofia, Bulgaria
- DARE – Democracy and Human Rights Education in Europ