Abstract
This exploratory, comparative sociological study examines youth civic engagement and attitudes toward urban commons in two non-Western cities: Almaty, Kazakhstan, and San José, Costa Rica. The overarching research question is: What are the profiles, motivations, actors, mechanisms, and barriers shaping youth civic engagement in Almaty and San José, and how do they compare across these distinct contexts? A cross-sectional, mixed-methods design was employed, combining 16 semi-structured expert interviews (8 per city) with an online survey administered to 114 civically engaged young adults (Almaty n = 58; San José n = 56; age 18–35). Qualitative data were analysed through content analysis with thematic coding; quantitative data were analysed descriptively. Findings reveal both shared motivations—community contribution, skill development, and sense of belonging—and context-specific differences in actors, mechanisms, and barriers, thus offering comparative insights from two under-researched settings and contributing to the wider sociology of youth civic participation and civil society beyond the Western contexts in which this literature has traditionally developed.