Discussion How is civic engagement developed over time? Emerging answers from a multidisciplinary field Erik Amnå * Youth & Society (YeS), Örebro University, SE-70182 Örebro, Sweden Keywords Civic engagement Disengagement Youth Adolescent Political participation Political socialisation Development abstract Insights into the development of civic values, attitudes, knowledge, skills and behaviours are greatly demanded by adults worried about a seemingly steady decline in the societal interest of their offspring. Hence, the collection of studies in this special issue on civic engagement in adolescence is not only timely and enlightening, but it also has the potentials to contribute to research in different disciplines on various dimensions, mechanisms and normative models of civic engagement. The studies reveal some prom- ising attempts to bring civil themes into the field of adolescent development. However, to overcome some conceptual, methodological and empirical shortcomings, future develop- mental studies in the area need to be substantially improved by considering cultural and institutional conditions, by focussing on processes across various everyday life contexts, by merging theories from different disciplinary fields, by conceptualizing adolescents as changeable subjects, and by delineating untested and unwarranted normative assumptions. Ó 2012 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. A civic age between hope and fear “Adolescence is an age of opportunity for children, and a pivotal time for us to build on their development in the first decade of life, to help them navigate risks and vulnerabilities, and to set them on the path to fulfilling their potential” (UNICEF, 2011 , p. 2). Few periods of life are capable of causing so much hope and fear simultaneously as adolescence. The unknown outcomes of maintaining a balance between embedded possibilities and risks at this age have always given rise to adult worries. Often, the ways in which adolescents choose to shape their civic life seem to cause anxiety. Rarely do offspring make their parents proud. Parents’ alarm concerns that youths have the wrong civic orientation, or that they lack any orientation at all. The adolescence of the children is contrasted by parents with their own adolescence, or rather their memories of that period, or, most likely, their skewed, wishful thinking about it. Thus, youths are blamed for the weaknesses of the (adults’) democracies (Putnam, 2000). * Tel.: þ46 19 301053; fax: þ46 19 301421. E-mail address: erik.amna@oru.se. Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Adolescence journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jado 0140-1971/$ – see front matter Ó 2012 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2012.04.011 Journal of Adolescence 35 (2012) 611–627