Young people’s values and environmental activism as Do-It-Ourselves (DIO) Politics

Young people around the world have been increasingly engaging in environmental activism. It is noteworthy that youth across the age spectrum – from primary school students to young adults – have been protesting about the environmental crisis, which is not directly related to education or other youth-centred issues. This young generation’s protests reveal a shift in values, as well as growing frustration, anger and distrust about older generations of powerholders. Young environmental activists are building on the repertoire of contention employed by older generations of environmentalists in their protest actions. They empahsise the importance of kindness and non-violent direct action (NVDA). These young citizens are taking political initiatives outside traditional political parties in favour of networks and movements that aspire to horizontalism and internal democracy. They are inspired by young influencers and role models with a strong online social media presence and offline collective action. This is a form of Do-It-Ourselves (DIO) politics (Pickard 2019). DIO politics is when citizens take political action into their own hands collectively and individually as part of a wider movement to bring about change outside political parties, while trying to influence policy. In young people’s environmental activism DIO politics, the ‘doing’ is mobilised by the sentiment of needing to act and react to perceived political inertia, green-washing and ‘youth-bait’ from elected politicians not ‘doing’ enough about the climate crisis portrayed in dystopian terms. The importance of ‘ourselves’ is two-fold. First, it involves young citizens taking action themselves (as opposed to politicians). Second, it involves young people acting together, as a part of a global generational movement involving a sense of belonging and political efficacy. In this paper, I outline the shift in values and attitudes that has resulted in the current young generation’s environmental activism. I go on to explore DIO politics in more detail as a concept and provide an explanation and concrete examples. Last, I suggest implications in terms of young people’s political participation as they move through the political life cycle. I draw on semi-structured interviews with young environmental activists participating in school climate strikes (Fridays for Future) and Extinction Rebellion (XR) protests in the UK and France.