Cities are sites of intense social, economic and cultural change, and youth are at the forefront of these transformations. Youth have distinctive experiences of: economic and labour market restructuring; innovative forms of connectedness through social media; new family structures; changing forms of social belonging; cultural creativity and experimentation; and transformations in urban space. Major metropolitan centres that have seen rapid demographic change and deepening ethno-cultural diversity, provide particularly interesting and complex environments for youth development.

In the context of rapidly changing multicultural metropolises, this workshop will examine and compare Canadian and Chinese experiences with, and conceptual approaches to, the intersections of youth, diversity and social development.

Discussions may include, but need not be limited to:

• Youth attitudes towards, and engagements with, multiculturalism;
• The role of institutions (e.g. schools, social services, community organizations) in social reproduction and managing ethnic diversity;
• Contemporary forms of discrimination;
• Youth employment and socio-economic outcomes;
• Youth and social exclusion;
• Youth and the use of urban public space;
• Cultural production and the arts in youth identity formation;
• Changing family relations, especially among migrant youth;
• Patterns of youth educational achievement in diverse ethnic communities;
• Patterns of intergenerational socio-economic mobility in diverse communities;
• Youth experiences of migration and settlement.

This workshop is a joint initiative between the York Centre for Asian Research and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. It is part of an ongoing series of academic engagements between the two institutions begun in 2011.

The workshop will be held on 27-28 May 2015 at York University. It will consist of 12 papers presented and discussed over two days, including up to six delivered by visiting scholars from CASS.

We are seeking expressions of interest from the York community (and beyond) among those whose research addresses the experiences of urban youth and falls within the broad terms of reference laid out above.

If you are interested, please submit a CV and a 200-300 word abstract of your proposed paper, by 6 February 2015 to ycar@yorku.ca.