Deconstructing Generations in Movements

Abstract

In academic and public debates, times of crisis have often been associated with the decline of political participation and civic engagement (della Porta 2013; 2014). The erosion of some identity, solidarity, and ideology as well as the decline of certain types of informal networks and resources (money, power, and status), and the closing of political opportunities are usually interpreted as factors that jeopardise political participation (Bauman 1997). As all of these conditions have affected with particular virulence young people, expectations have spread about a disenchanted, frustrated, apathetic young cohort. Challenging these expectations, today’s young people – who are suffering high levels of unemployment, precarisation, decrease in credit access, cuts in social services, changes in consumption patterns, and a grim outlook of their future as results of the economic crisis – are not in general apathetic, disengaged, anti-political, or removed from political participation (Amnå and Ekman 2013). Rather, from the Arab Spring to Indignados, from the mobilizations for global justice to the anti-austerity protests, a new generation has joined contentious politics, developing, at least in part, creative ideas for a more just and inclusive society. Empirical research indicates that, especially in those countries which have been hit harder by the financial crisis, a substantial number of young citizens are reacting to it with increasing political and social mobilization, choosing predominantly intermittent, non-institutionalised, horizontal forms of political participation, performed across hybrid public spaces (from the Web to town squares) (della Porta 2014). Drawing on and empowered by new social media technologies (Sloam 2014), young people appear to challenge mainstream perspectives and citizens’ roles as defined by political elites. While not, or not completely disengaging from institutional politics, critical young Europeans are developing alternative forms of social commitment, which enhance their engagement in public life and form part of a strategy for social change. Far from being apathetic or passive, many young people apparently do have an interest in politics, even if they perceive the inadequacy of the existing institutions and practices of representative governments, as mainstream political parties and elites tend to ignore or are unable or unwilling to address the issues most relevant for the current youth generation (Loader et al. 2014; Loader 2007). As a consequence of what they see as degeneration of representative democracy, a substantial proportion of young people seems to withdraw from conventional forms of political action but also increasingly channel their political participation toward a wide variety of alternative ideas and practices oriented to reduce social inequalities. These not only take distinct forms of organization, action, and framing but also focus on alternative forms of commitments against austerity, for migrant rights, gender and sexual rights, environmental protection. Focusing on progressive social movements, our research has bridged concepts and theories coming from both youth studies and social movement studies. After presenting the theoretical model and research design, Donatella della Porta will summarise some results on three main aspects: the meaning of generations in social movements, the self-definition of the millennials, and their forms of commitment.