Young People, Protest and Dissent

Youth doing politics in times of increasing inequalities

“…While there is a rich literature on youth participation (e.g. Bessant, 2021;Earl et al, 2017;Giugni and Grasso, 2021a;Pickard, 2019;Sloam and Henn, 2019), to date we have lacked the data to carry out detailed subgroup analyses to understand differences in the political participation between different groups of youth. The papers in this Special Issue all examine different aspects of youth participation in the current context.…”

Intra-generational inequalities in young people’s political participation in Europe: The impact of social class on youth political engagement

“…Indeed, against studies showing that young people are apathetic and disinterested in politics, another group of studies has argued that young people are not disengaged, but rather they prefer to become involved in other, more direct modes of participation that are unconventional and issue-based such as through protest politics and engagement in social movements (Henn et al, 2002; Pickard, 2019). Other than socio-demographics, low efficacy, apathy, and cynicism have all been suggested as explanations for young people’s lack of involvement in politics (Karampampas, et al, 2019).…”

“…Moreover, there have also been concerns that the current generation of youth is less civic-minded and interested in collective pursuits such as political engagement (Putnam, 2000). While others have argued that young people are indeed engaged in other means and that their ‘doing politics’ should be the focus of analysis (Henn et al, 2002; Pickard, 2019), it is likely that as among all age groups, political participation and political engagement amongst youth will be highly patterned by social inequalities in terms of resources and background, particularly in terms of social class background. While it is true that well-off young people may still be very much ‘doing politics’, it remains troubling if particularly those coming from backgrounds with lower levels of resources engage at lower rates, whether this is through activities linked to political parties and other political organisations or political representatives, or whether this is in terms of applying pressure through protest activism, community or volunteer activism or even online participation.…”

Regimes of Youth Participation? Comparative Analysis of Youth Policies and Participation across European Cities

“…In sociology, this is extended to belonging and membership (for example involvement in organizations; Spannring et al, 2008). Due to young people’s scepticism and distrust of traditional political institutions (Pickard, 2019), attention has been recently extended to include forms of civic participation—like youth councils, the primary focus of this article—which often aim at introducing young people to and preparing them for institutionalized mechanisms of citizenship (Matthews, 2001). This also applies to education and social work, where participation is both an aim and a principle of working with young people (Arnstein, 1969; Batsleer et al, 2020).…”