Young People and Environmental Activism: Values and Activism

Abstract

Young people are most susceptible to new influences and ideas, reflecting the period in which they grow up. The current young generation is being politically socialised within a specific set of circumstances – austerity, precarity, environmental crisis (Pickard and Bessant 2017), and now the Covid-19 pandemic – that inevitably impact upon their citizenship and political engagement. Recently, there has been a world-wide surge in youth-led environmental activism: from the School Strike movement (Fridays For Future) started by Greta Thunberg, to Extinction Rebellion (XR), to community based environmental projects (Pickard 2019; della Porta and Diani 2020; Pickard, Bowman and Arya 2020), through to the increase in youth support for Green parties and policies across many democracies. Survey data show that environmental issues have risen to the top of young people’s priorities, which is underpinned by a growth in ‘cosmopolitan values’ (Henn and Sloam 2019). The implications of these developments regarding young people and political participation are profound in terms of citizenship, the status of youth, youth-led environmental movements, the development of new repertoires of contention, political engagement, trust in politicians, policy and democracy. In this panel, we consider the generational specificities regarding shifting values, attitudes and concerns among young people and how these translate into the creation, engagement and mobilisation of young environmental activists in Europe. We analyse and discuss with reference to theoretical studies, published survey data and our own fieldwork how today’s young people are in turn reshaping views, reconstituting political participation and holding governments to account for their approaches towards (or neglect of) environmental challenges.

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