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Abstract

By establishing a set of theoretical frameworks to view and compare the work of youth organizers and youth commissioners, and through personal interviews, the authors of the paper “Youth Change Agents: Comparing the Sociopolitical Identities of Youth Organizers and Youth Commissioners” presented their explanation of the development of the sociopolitical identities and civic commitments of each group. This response paper asks questions about the authors’ limited use of context and complexity to explain how their youth arrived at their opinions, perspectives, and ultimately their sociopolitical identities. Their work also raises questions of how and why civic engagement and social activism took place based upon the provided evidence of actual changes that occurred. Finally, it poses methodological concerns associated specifically with relying on youth memories, years after the fact, of their tenure in these two groups and uncoupled from any interactive variables, as well as the absence of triangulated data that would further substantiate their findings.

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