tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/youth-activism-37026/articlesYouth activism – The Conversation2024-02-02T13:19:22Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2195452024-02-02T13:19:22Z2024-02-02T13:19:22ZFrom throwing soup to suing governments, there’s strategy to climate activism’s seeming chaos − here’s where it’s headed next<p>Climate activism has been on a wild ride lately, from the shock tactics of young activists throwing <a href="https://theconversation.com/throwing-soup-on-a-van-gogh-and-other-ways-young-climate-activists-are-making-their-voices-heard-193210">soup on famous paintings</a> to a <a href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/climate-litigation-more-doubles-five-years-now-key-tool-delivering">surge in climate lawsuits</a> by savvy plaintiffs.</p>
<p>While some people consider <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ2kBc_-Pfk">disruptive “antics”</a> like attacking museum artwork with food to be confusing and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/london-painting-climate-and-environment-b15e0092560b290c04920620b2d7c061">alienating for the public</a>, research into social movements shows there is a method to the seeming madness.</p>
<p>By <a href="https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1424&context=ohlj">strategically using</a> both radical forms of civil disobedience and more mainstream public actions, such as lobbying and state-sanctioned demonstrations, activists can grab the public’s attention while making less aggressive tactics seem much more acceptable.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495216/original/file-20221114-25-g67lag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=101%2C1%2C1159%2C716&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Protesters wearing 'Just Stop Oil' T-shirts stand next to Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' painting, which has tomato soup streaming down the glass cover. One protester holds up the soup can for cameras. Both have one hand glued to the wall behind them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495216/original/file-20221114-25-g67lag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=101%2C1%2C1159%2C716&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495216/original/file-20221114-25-g67lag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495216/original/file-20221114-25-g67lag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495216/original/file-20221114-25-g67lag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495216/original/file-20221114-25-g67lag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495216/original/file-20221114-25-g67lag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495216/original/file-20221114-25-g67lag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Two activists were arrested after throwing tomato soup on Vincent Van Gogh’s glass-covered ‘Sunflowers’ at the National Gallery in London in 2023 in a bid to draw media attention so they could talk about oil’s role in climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/climate-protesters-hold-a-demonstration-as-they-throw-cans-news-photo/1243970418">Just Stop Oil/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/profile/shannon-gibson/">I study</a> the role of disruptive politics and social movements in global climate policy and have chronicled the ebb, flow and dynamism of climate activism over time. With today’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/acaa21">political institutions</a> largely focused on short-term desires over long-term planetary health, and global climate negotiations moving far too slowly to meet the challenge, climate activists have been reconsidering their tactics – and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/07/europe/extinction-rebellion-quits-disruptive-protests-climate-intl/index.html">radically rethinking</a> how to make their activism most effective.</p>
<p>In meetings with global activists in recent weeks, my colleagues and I have noticed a shifting emphasis to local climate battles – in the streets, political arenas and courtrooms. The lines between reformists and radicals, and between <a href="https://voidnetwork.gr/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Dynamics-of-contention-by-McAdamTarrowTilly.pdf">global and grassroots mobilizers</a>, are blurring, and a new sense of strategic engagement is taking root. </p>
<h2>When global institutions fail the public</h2>
<p>Activist groups have long relied on a strategy <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801484568/activists-beyond-borders/">known as the boomerang effect</a> – using international networks and global institutions such as the United Nations’ climate talks to influence national governments’ policy choices.</p>
<p>But while this tactic was initially well suited to climate change, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/cop28-climate-deal-stab-back-activist-greta-thunberg-says-2023-12-15/">results show</a> the talks have been <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/paris-agreement-goals-failed-climate-change-global-warming-united-nations-climate-review/">too slow and insufficient</a>. The growing influence of the fossil fuel industry, whose products are the leading cause of global warming, has left some activists seriously <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-020-00222-y">questioning whether the U.N. climate process is still useful</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568937/original/file-20240111-15-v2fsff.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Charts show the world is well off track to meeting the Paris Agreement climate targets." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568937/original/file-20240111-15-v2fsff.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568937/original/file-20240111-15-v2fsff.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568937/original/file-20240111-15-v2fsff.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568937/original/file-20240111-15-v2fsff.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568937/original/file-20240111-15-v2fsff.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568937/original/file-20240111-15-v2fsff.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568937/original/file-20240111-15-v2fsff.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The world experienced its hottest year on record in 2023 and isn’t on track to meet the Paris Agreement’s aim to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F). Climate Action Tracker shows the emissions gap to 2030.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://climateactiontracker.org/global/cat-emissions-gaps/">Climate Analytics and NewClimate Institute</a></span>
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<p>The 2023 U.N. climate conference solidified these concerns when the conference’s host, the United Arab Emirates, put its state oil company CEO in charge of the climate talks. Some people argue that <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/14/climate-change-oil-ceo-sultan-al-jaber-is-ideal-person-to-lead-cop-28.html">oil companies have to be part of the solution</a>. But the conference was overrun by a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/05/record-number-of-fossil-fuel-lobbyists-get-access-to-cop28-climate-talks">record number of oil and gas lobbyists</a> more than 2,400 of them. And it was tainted by allegations that <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/27/climate/uae-cop28-documents-al-jaber-climate-intl/index.html">it was being used to further</a>, rather than halt, fossil fuel development. The <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-successes-and-failures-of-cop28/">final agreement of COP28</a> left room for the continuing expansion of fossil fuels.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2024/01/04/azerbaijan-appoint-state-oil-company-veteran-as-cop29-president/">announcement in January 2024 that Azerbaijan</a>, host of the next U.N. climate conference in late 2024, would place another oil industry veteran in charge of COP29 put <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulHBeckwith/status/1743405338886545780">another nail in the coffin</a> of any faith many activists still had in the system.</p>
<h2>Climate activists go local</h2>
<p>In response to the weakness of global climate negotiations and failing climate policy, my colleagues and I are seeing signs of activists <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89740-0_10">turning more to their local roots</a>. Notably, we are seeing a ramp-up in sophisticated legal battles over climate change.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/climate-litigation-more-doubles-five-years-now-key-tool-delivering">Over 2,000 new climate change cases</a> have been filed in the past five years. Most seek to compel governments and corporations to reduce their emissions or keep fossil fuels in the ground, and the majority are <a href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/climate-litigation-more-doubles-five-years-now-key-tool-delivering">in the United States</a>. <a href="https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Global_trends_in_climate_change_litigation_2023_snapshot.pdf">Over half</a> of the cases decided between June 2022 and May 2023 had a favorable outcome for the climate, though most still face appeals.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569139/original/file-20240112-17-yv0czr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Young people fill a bench in a courthouse, some are elementary school age others in their teens. A girl at the end with purple hair smiles at someone across the aisle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569139/original/file-20240112-17-yv0czr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569139/original/file-20240112-17-yv0czr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569139/original/file-20240112-17-yv0czr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569139/original/file-20240112-17-yv0czr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569139/original/file-20240112-17-yv0czr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569139/original/file-20240112-17-yv0czr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569139/original/file-20240112-17-yv0czr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Sixteen young Montanans sued their state for promoting fossil fuel energy policies that they say violate their right to a ‘clean and healthful environment,’ which is written into their state constitution. A judge ruled in their favor in 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/youth-plaintiffs-await-the-start-of-the-nations-first-youth-news-photo/1258644211">William Campbell/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p><iframe id="hK2ur" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/hK2ur/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>In 2023, <a href="https://theconversation.com/montana-kids-win-historic-climate-lawsuit-heres-why-it-could-set-a-powerful-precedent-207907">a judge in Montana</a> recognized the state’s constitutional duty to protect residents from climate change. In another case, a court in <a href="https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en/knowledge/publications/eb28cbe1/dutch-court-orders-shell-to-reduce-co2-emissions-in-collective-action-proceedings">The Netherlands in 2021 set a precedent</a> by ordering the oil company Shell to reduce its emissions by 45% by 2030 in official compliance with the international Paris climate agreement.</p>
<h2>How radical spectacles create space for progress</h2>
<p>When radical activism takes place at the same time as formal institutional challenges, studies show the combination can help increase support for more moderate activism. </p>
<p>Researchers call this the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac110">radical flank effect</a>.” It was effective for both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02507-y">the civil rights</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.17813/1086-671X-20-2-157">feminist movements</a>, and it is evident in other political movements in the U.S. today.</p>
<p>When people are exposed to radical forms of environmental protest, they become aware of the problems. Seeing the extremes can also leave them more comfortable with supporting less extreme tactics.</p>
<p>For example, the idea of <a href="https://theconversation.com/throwing-soup-on-a-van-gogh-and-other-ways-young-climate-activists-are-making-their-voices-heard-193210">throwing tomato soup on Van Gogh’s glass-covered “Sunflowers”</a> painting may have been polarizing, but it <a href="https://www.american.edu/sis/big-world/68-will-climate-shock-cause-climate-change-action.cfm">got the general public talking</a> about the soup-throwers’ cause – ending fossil fuel use. And that can open doors for political leaders to discuss viable solutions to climate change.</p>
<p>We see this happening in the U.K. After initially disapproving of protests, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/extinction-rebellion-sadiq-khan-climate-change-protests-meeting-london-michael-gove-a8892106.html">London Mayor Sadiq Khan met with Extinction Rebellion</a>, a group known for dramatic actions such as spraying fake blood on the steps of the U.K. treasury. Then-U.K. environment secretary <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/30/extinction-rebellion-tells-politicians-to-declare-emergency">Michael Gove met with the climate activists</a> to discuss emissions reductions. Days later, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48126677">the U.K. Parliament declared a climate emergency</a> – the first country to do so.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569140/original/file-20240112-21-mqcnmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman speaking at a microphone points upward. Behind her is a sign reading: 'Fossil Fuels Kill'." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569140/original/file-20240112-21-mqcnmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569140/original/file-20240112-21-mqcnmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569140/original/file-20240112-21-mqcnmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569140/original/file-20240112-21-mqcnmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569140/original/file-20240112-21-mqcnmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569140/original/file-20240112-21-mqcnmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569140/original/file-20240112-21-mqcnmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., speaks at a climate rally in New York in September 2023 focused on ending fossil fuels. Influencing politicians and other decision-makers is a key goal of activists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXClimateFossilFuelProtest/543f10ff97184343bb421140275549be/photo">AP Photo/Bryan Woolston</a></span>
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<p>Politicians under pressure from climate protesters are shifting course in the U.S. as well. President Joe Biden made climate change a focus of his first campaign, but activists <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/biden-administration-rejects-calls-to-phase-out-oil-gas-on-public-lands-by-2035-2023-06-29/">aren’t getting anywhere close to everything they want</a> and have made Biden a recent target of climate protests and even hecklers.</p>
<p>While it is hard to get into the mind of judges and juries, research shows that in cases such as workers’ and women’s rights struggles, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2299479">radical and anti-government protests can have an impact</a> on them. While court decisions rarely produce radical societal change, they are frequently followed by legislative changes that meet more moderate demands.</p>
<h2>The real aim</h2>
<p>Criticism of extreme activism often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02507-y">misses a crucial point</a>: The public’s reaction isn’t necessarily the activists’ end goal. Often, their ultimate aim is to influence government and business decision-makers. And while decision-makers are rarely, if ever, going to attribute their actions to activist pressure, the passing of the climate-focused Inflation Reduction Act in a gridlocked U.S. Congress in 2022 and declarations of a climate emergency across the globe suggest climate activists’ concerns are getting through.</p>
<p>When looking at climate activism, pundits should be cautioned in their criticism of what they see as a “disjointed movement.” The perceived madness is indeed method.</p>
<p><em>USC graduate student Abhay Manchala contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219545/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shannon Gibson is affiliated with the Gibson Climate Justice Lab and Global Justice Ecology Project.</span></em></p>With international climate talks failing to make progress fast enough, activists are radically rethinking how to be most effective in the streets, political arenas and courtrooms.Shannon Gibson, Associate Professor of International Relations and Environmental Studies, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1874972022-12-28T09:20:34Z2022-12-28T09:20:34ZWhy aren’t children allowed to vote? An expert debunks the arguments against<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493550/original/file-20221104-10296-1za1xx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C73%2C5414%2C3563&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-preteen-friends-park-smiling-camera-735971812">Monkey Business Images / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most people think democracy is something that adults do and regard the prospect of children voting as too silly to even contemplate. In the early 20th century, many democracies began (ostensibly) operating with universal suffrage, ensuring voting rights were no longer withheld from adults on the basis of wealth or sex or race. But age thresholds have endured, and children continue to be excluded from democracy – an exclusion based on what they are (young), and adults’ assumptions about what it means to be young.</p>
<p>However, in a <a href="https://www.cypcs.org.uk/wpcypcs/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/crc-report-2020.pdf">2020 report to the UN</a>, the UK’s children’s commissioner concluded that the UK government “does not prioritise children’s rights or voices in policy or legislative processes”. Consequently, the report argued, children’s economic status is often worse than older people’s, and during crises such as the COVID pandemic, their insights and needs are ignored. They didn’t have a say in Brexit and their concerns about the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34895496/">environment</a> are routinely marginalised, despite children being set to bear the brunt of both.</p>
<p>A number of countries allow teenagers <a href="https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/legal-voting-age-by-country.html">aged 16 and 17</a> to vote, but I think we should be thinking harder about our reasons for disenfranchising even very young children. If we’re excluding them unfairly, the credibility of democracy is at risk. Here are three common arguments against children voting. In each case, I believe the grounds for exclusion are a lot less secure than we might think. </p>
<h2>1. Children are too ill-informed to vote</h2>
<p>The most common response to the question “why can’t children vote?” is that children are too ill-informed or irrational to do it properly. While adults are capable of understanding what they are voting on, it’s too much to expect of children, whose cognitive abilities are much less developed. Children are unlikely to think for themselves, but rather copy the views of authority figures like parents and teachers.</p>
<p>This may be true. But at what point does knowledge or rationality become relevant to voting, and what it is that voters need in order to vote “well” or “responsibly”? Is it the capacity to identify candidates or political parties? Or the ability to analyse politicians’ past performances and future promises? Must voters understand the legislative process and the roles of the various branches of government?</p>
<p>Though these insights are probably useful, there’s no agreement on what’s essential. And because we’re not sure what’s required, it’s impossible to say adults have it – whatever <em>it</em> is – and children don’t.</p>
<p>In fact, the differences between children and adults are likely narrower than we commonly suppose: 35% of UK adult voters <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2020/12/02/yougov-democracy-study">can’t identify their local MP</a> while, at different times, 59% of Americans haven’t been sure which party their state governor belongs to, and only 44% have been able to <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691169446/democracy-for-realists">name a branch of government</a>. We let these adults vote, and rightly so, yet disqualify <em>all</em> children for apparently exhibiting the same characteristics.</p>
<p>The fact that adults don’t need to show franchise credentials or an independence of mind shows that voting is not a privilege of competency, but rather a right of citizenship. The franchise should therefore be enjoyed by all citizens, including children and even babies. </p>
<p>If this seems frivolous, consider that very young children who can’t walk or hold a pen are extremely unlikely, in practice, to exercise their right to vote – much as many adults, for any number of reasons, decline to exercise theirs. What’s important is that whenever citizens acquire an inclination to vote – a motivation that presupposes an understanding of what elections do and how they work – the option should be available. Whether they’re four or 94. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman's hand and a small child's hand put a vote into a ballot box together" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493547/original/file-20221104-19-nvn7xr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=746%2C511%2C2778%2C1855&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493547/original/file-20221104-19-nvn7xr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493547/original/file-20221104-19-nvn7xr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493547/original/file-20221104-19-nvn7xr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493547/original/file-20221104-19-nvn7xr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493547/original/file-20221104-19-nvn7xr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493547/original/file-20221104-19-nvn7xr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If knowledge or rationality were necessary to vote, many adults wouldn’t have the right.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/womans-kids-hands-puting-card-vote-1529854547">Dziurek / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Children voting would lead to policy chaos</h2>
<p>Another argument against children voting is that it would lead to policy chaos. If children are irrational and incoherent but nevertheless allowed to vote, the outcome of elections, and the policy decisions they give rise to, would surely reflect or be distorted by their ill-conceived and incoherent votes.</p>
<p>However, this misunderstands the role of elections. Voting is not the same as making law. To vote isn’t to decide what happens or get one’s way, or even necessarily to set the political agenda. Distilling public opinion is a messy and complicated process. And because the link between what the public wants and what it gets isn’t always direct or obvious, wacky voter beliefs aren’t necessarily echoed in policy.</p>
<p>This is why representative democracies can function with vast numbers of uninformed and irrational citizens. In fact, overcoming voter ignorance is precisely what representative politics – in which the people elect representatives to take decisions on their behalf – is all about. </p>
<p>Voting, therefore, is a statement of equality, a recognition of equal moral standing. More concretely, it’s a (loose) guarantee that one’s concerns and perspectives will not be systematically overlooked by politicians. The fact that children can’t vote means they’re denied this respect and protection. As the historic experiences of excluded women and ethnic minorities show us, this is not a good position to be in.</p>
<h2>3. Voting rights shouldn’t come before other rights</h2>
<p>The third objection to giving children the vote relates to the order in which particular rights and responsibilities are acquired. Voting is a serious business, the argument goes, and thus the right to vote should coincide with, or follow, the right to perform other activities of similar weight and consequence, such as smoking and drinking, getting married or joining the army.</p>
<p>However, it’s worth asking why <em>any</em> of these rights are postponed in the first place. The basic answer is that exercising these rights is potentially harmful, so they’re only conferred on individuals who understand, and are likely to be mindful of, the risks. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of young people in school uniforms with a handpainted sign reading 'Stop burning our future'/" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493548/original/file-20221104-12-niajzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493548/original/file-20221104-12-niajzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493548/original/file-20221104-12-niajzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493548/original/file-20221104-12-niajzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493548/original/file-20221104-12-niajzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493548/original/file-20221104-12-niajzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493548/original/file-20221104-12-niajzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Youth activism has gained traction worldwide with the climate movement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/melbourne-victoria-australia-may-21-2021-1978126466">Christie Cooper / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We withhold such rights from children because (we assume) they often fail to think through the consequences of their actions. However, we don’t stop heedless adults exercising their liberty in a self-destructive way. So why aren’t children granted the same latitude?</p>
<p>The answer has something to do with protecting children’s <em>potential</em>. We deny children harmful freedoms so as not to jeopardise their future freedoms, to ensure they reach adulthood with as many life opportunities as possible. </p>
<p>This rationale holds vis-à-vis the right to drink or the age of consent. But it works less well with voting rights, which aren’t obviously dangerous and pose no direct threat to children’s future wellbeing.</p>
<p>It seems, therefore, that children are suffering an injustice: they’re being denied the vote without adequate justification. At the same time, young people are acutely <a href="https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Youth_and_Satisfaction_with_Democracy-lite.pdf">dissatisfied with democracy</a>, in part because they’re overlooked in democratic decision-making.</p>
<p>Enfranchisement is not a silver bullet. But unless the place of children in democracy is improved and deepened, political division and democratic distrust will surely worsen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187497/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Harry Pearse does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our assumptions about what it means to be young have left millions of people disenfranchised.Harry Pearse, Research associate, Centre for the Future of Democracy, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1926902022-11-07T10:07:57Z2022-11-07T10:07:57ZGirls are held up as figureheads of political change, but they don’t want to do it alone<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493233/original/file-20221103-12-dw19ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C8179%2C5457&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/teenage-girl-holding-megaphone-while-marching-2208012943">Jacob Lund/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Girls are at the centre of global movements for indigenous rights, climate justice, gender equality and civil rights. Educational activist <a href="https://www.unicefusa.org/press/releases/malala-yousafzai-they-thought-bullet-would-silence-us-they-failed/8266">Malala Yousafzai</a> was awarded the Nobel peace prize at 17. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-49918719">Greta Thunberg</a> has inspired millions of her peers to campaign for climate action: she began a series of school strikes when she was 15. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-63143504">Iranian</a> and <a href="https://www.diplomaticourier.com/posts/afghanistans-girls-and-women-fight-back">Afghan</a> girls are taking to the streets to demand their rights to an education and basic freedoms.</p>
<p>But our understanding of girls’ involvement in politics is still limited, and their opportunities to participate are all too often tokenistic.</p>
<p>Girls have historically been excluded from most political institutions and movements because of both their age and their gender. While all children and young people are excluded from voting in elections and standing for government, girls and young women have to deal with the additional barrier that politics is still seen by many as a “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2041905818779324?journalCode=plia">man’s game</a>”. </p>
<p>Around the world, women still make up <a href="https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/leadership-and-political-participation/facts-and-figures">just 21%</a> of government ministers and 26% of parliamentarians. Perhaps that is why research shows that girls and young women who are already involved in community organising and activism are <a href="https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/soc4.12135">reluctant to describe themselves</a> as “political”. </p>
<p>But girls are leading political change – whether on the world stage or in their own communities. In research with girls across nine different countries, my co-authors and I found that girls are taking part in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14616742.2021.1996258">everyday acts of resistance</a>, winning a bit more freedom for themselves and their friends as they navigate their way through childhood. </p>
<h2>Girls lead movements</h2>
<p>Girls push back against inequalities in their communities, challenge unfair rules that stop them from doing everything their male peers are able to and demand fairer treatment from parents and elders. </p>
<p>They set up girls’ rights or feminist clubs <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13552074.2018.1523287">in schools</a> and take action on issues they care about, even though they often experience stigma for doing so. And, of course, girls take part in, or even lead, <a href="https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/10/compilation-girls-to-know">global political movements</a>.</p>
<p>One <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0463-3">2019 study</a> found that daughters were particularly good at convincing their parents of the evidence that our climate is changing as a result of human activity. The increase in climate concern was most dramatic among fathers and conservative parents. So, we know that girls are not just politically active, but that they are also effective political communicators.</p>
<p>But UK media coverage of girls’ activism still often misses the mark. I analysed UK media representations of Malala Yousafzai in the aftermath of her shooting by the Pakistani Taliban. I found that she was often portrayed <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1369148116631274">as younger than she was</a> and as a helpless victim of forces beyond her control. </p>
<p>Despite the fact that Yousafzai had been campaigning and blogging for some time, speaking out even after threats to her life, almost nine times out of ten, the newspapers in this study quoted somebody else’s words in explaining her story and its significance.</p>
<h2>Help – not hope</h2>
<p>While there is also plenty of positive media coverage of girl activists, it often risks presenting the issues they are campaigning on <a href="https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/girlhood-studies/13/2/ghs130203.xml">as already solved</a>. Greta Thunberg is calling for adults to urgently address climate change, but media coverage of her activism can adopt a reassuring tone, focusing on <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/50746982">Thunberg herself</a> and her amazing qualities, or her ability to inspire millions of other youth activists <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-wales-49840883">like her</a>. </p>
<p>As she raises the alarm about the need for urgent action, many adults see her as evidence that everything is going to be OK. As Thunberg said in a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/09/23/763452863/transcript-greta-thunbergs-speech-at-the-u-n-climate-action-summit">2019 appearance</a> at the UN: “You all come to us young people for hope? How dare you?”</p>
<p>For more than two decades now, we’ve seen international institutions, governments, NGOs and transnational corporations embrace the idea of girl power. Everyone from <a href="https://www.global.girleffect.org/who-we-are/our-story/">Nike</a> to <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/adolescent-girls-initiative">the World Bank</a> has been keen to tell us of the importance of investing in girls, so that they can fulfil their spectacular potential. </p>
<p>The narrative goes that if you educate and empower a girl, she will go on to use that education for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgVwm8sl4os">the better of humanity</a>. Girls, we are told, will save the world.</p>
<p>But girls don’t want to save the world all by themselves. Nor should they have to. The issues they care most about are not problems of their making. </p>
<p>Girls need more meaningful opportunities to participate in decision-making, and they need adults to resist the temptation to feel reassured that young people have got the most important issues under control. They need support in their <a href="https://www.mamacash.org/en/report-girls-to-the-front">efforts at organising</a>, because they still face so many barriers in terms of funds and platforms to speak from. </p>
<p>As has been shown in Iran and Afghanistan in recent weeks, girls are phenomenally brave in standing up to the injustices they face. But they shouldn’t have to do it alone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192690/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosie Walters receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. She is a member of the Women's Equality Party and an academic advisor to Plan International.</span></em></p>Girls are leading activist movements across the world, but don’t see themselves as political.Rosie Walters, Lecturer in International Relations, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1762782022-02-05T05:42:41Z2022-02-05T05:42:41ZGod’s guardians on earth: how young Muslims in Indonesia turn to faith for environmental activism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444304/original/file-20220203-27-ty5qxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young people in Indonesia participate in the 2019 Jakarta Climate Strike.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(The Conversation Indonesia/Luthfi T. Dzulfikar)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13676261.2020.1782864">Our study</a> of young environmental activists in Indonesia found that Muslim youth activists based their environmentalism firmly on their knowledge of Islam. They see themselves as <a href="https://quran.com/2/30?translations=17,101,22,21,19,20,18,95"><em>khalifahs</em></a> – or God’s lieutenants on earth – undertaking the sacred task of guarding the natural world. </p>
<p>This echoes the growing popularity of “green Islam” as an important <a href="https://theconversation.com/young-muslim-women-are-leading-environmental-movements-grounded-in-their-beliefs-150504">global youth agenda</a>.</p>
<p>Indonesia has a <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-public-ignorance-and-democratic-decline-three-forces-chipping-away-at-indonesias-poor-environmental-conservation-160557">poor record</a> on environmental protection. There are significant problems of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025326X19304254">pollution</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989420307460">deforestation</a>, despite hundreds of regulations and laws governing environmental management and protection. As Indonesia has grown economically, so has the negative impact on its environment.</p>
<p>Amid that concerning trend, some pious and fervent young Muslim environmentalists are committed to raising the consciousness of peers about ecological crises. They view <a href="https://rissc.jo/docs/QuranEnv-Combined.pdf">environmental pollution and destruction as <em>haram</em></a>, or forbidden by Islamic law.</p>
<h2>Tapping into religious epiphany</h2>
<p>For the study, we talked to 20 environmental activists, aged 19–23, from campuses in Java and Sumatra. These young Muslim activists had solid academic knowledge that they used to shape their views on environmental practices based on Islamic theology.</p>
<p>For example, Pertiwi in Palembang, South Sumatra, attended an Islamic boarding school (or “<em>pesantren</em>”) where she studied Quranic verses in depth.</p>
<p>Later at university she joined a group campaigning against pollution of the Musi River through awareness-raising in riverside communities, lobbying major industrial polluters and organising river clean-up days.</p>
<p>Pertiwi says she based her environmental activism on a <em>surah</em> (chapter) in the Quran about the destruction of the Earth.</p>
<p>“Look at our ancestors, <em>Allah</em> [God] became very angry with them, right? He was not only angry because of human nature itself damaging the environment, but because of human actions directly violating something <em>Allah</em> had created,” she said.</p>
<p>She considers damaging the environment as <em>haram</em>, including littering.</p>
<p>“It violates the work of the Creator (…) God sees, hears and knows what humans do,” she explains. </p>
<p>Classmate Fahmi, on the other hand, studied chemical engineering. He joined the Palembang chapter of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sobatbumi_id/?hl=en"><em>Sobat Bumi</em></a>, an environmental movement initiated by Indonesia’s state-owned oil and natural gas corporation, Pertamina.</p>
<p>Fahmi experienced a religious epiphany when climbing up through cloud forests in a national park where he realised the truth of what was said in the Quran.</p>
<p>“If someone takes care of the surrounding environment, then God will look after them, both in this world and in the hereafter. […] And His gratitude is truly manifested when we come to regret mistakes such as littering the fresh environment that gives us the air we breathe,” he said.</p>
<p>One of our other respondents in Bandung, West Java, Iin was an active member of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/yfccindonesia/?hl=en">Youth for Climate Change (YFCC) Indonesia</a>. She believes it is an order from God for humans to behave as a <em>khalifah</em>, or God’s guardians on Earth.</p>
<p>“The term <em>khalifah</em> is mentioned in the verse that states, ‘[The] Lord said to the angels: 'I am placing on the Earth one that shall rule as My deputy [viceregent or lieutenant]’” she quotes (<a href="https://quran.com/2/30?translations=17,101,22,21,19,20,18,95">Quran 2:30</a>).</p>
<p>She also took pride in her career aspirations in nature conservation.</p>
<p>“I know the salary will not be as big as what I would get working for an oil and gas company. But I don’t have a problem with that, because I have been paid by God with my breath, food to eat and the means to live my daily life,” she said.</p>
<p>In the capital Jakarta, meanwhile, another participant in our study named Heri joined a university-led campaign to clean up <a href="https://theconversation.com/research-indonesias-ciliwung-among-the-worlds-most-polluted-rivers-131207">the Ciliwung River</a> – one of the most polluted rivers in the world. </p>
<p>“There is environmental education in my religion. Harmony must be both vertical and horizontal, ”<a href="https://rissc.jo/docs/QuranEnv-Combined.pdf"><em>hablum minallah, hablun minannas</em></a>“. It explains how you should interact socially with the environment,” Heri who attended a <em>madrasah</em> (Islamic school) said.</p>
<p>Heri’s words echo those of Mustofa Bisri (commonly known as Gus Mus), a popular theologian affiliated with Indonesia’s largest Muslim organisation, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). He once <a href="https://twitter.com/gusmusgusmu/status/378301052216279040">tweeted</a> that human life in the world is not only related to Allah (<em>hablum minallah</em>), but also to fellow humans (<em>hablum minannas</em>) and to the environment/nature (<em>hablum minal alam</em>).</p>
<p>It references the Quranic paradigm of holding fast to the “rope” of God as a multi-dimensional article of faith, one that encodes the common theological belief of harmony – “as above, so below”. </p>
<p>The young activists often drew on these Quranic references to explain their moral responsibility of conservation and reparation. The purity of nature was understood to reflect God’s transcendent goodness in creation.</p>
<p>They felt a moral duty to prevent other Indonesians from causing environmental pollution and destruction. They also campaigned actively to bring local Muslim polluters and destroyers back to the faith.</p>
<p>For example, a favoured T-shirt depicted the crescent moon and star, stating: “Even when doomsday comes, if someone has a palm shoot in his hand, he should plant it.” </p>
<p>The young activists sometimes alluded to their environmental struggle as an arduous journey guided by God. Yet they were not disheartened as they believed they would be rewarded in the hereafter for their work as a <em>khalifah</em>. </p>
<h2>A moral basis for green action</h2>
<p>In the new “green” Islam, young Muslim environmentalists use their Islamic views to <a href="https://theconversation.com/religious-communities-can-make-the-difference-in-winning-the-fight-against-climate-change-172192">construct a critical community</a> that sets out to preserve and sustain the natural world.</p>
<p>“Green Islam” is important because it offers a deep account of moral reasoning for environmental action in the world.</p>
<p>In contrast, <a href="https://theconversation.com/sidelining-god-why-secular-climate-projects-in-the-pacific-islands-are-failing-77623">many secular strategies</a> for mitigation of climate change rely either on dry scientific claims, or on abstract global values, which may lack relevance to the personal, spiritual dimension.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176278/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregorius Ragil Wibawanto has received funding from the Australia-Indonesia Centre (AIC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pamela Nilan tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Young Muslim activists in Indonesia turn to faith to undertake the sacred task of protecting the natural world. This echoes the growing popularity of ‘green Islam’ as an important global youth agenda.Pamela Nilan, Professor of Sociology, University of NewcastleGregorius Ragil Wibawanto, Lecturer at Department of Sociology, Fisipol UGM., Universitas Gadjah Mada Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1654282021-11-29T16:18:51Z2021-11-29T16:18:51ZYoung children all find politics engaging but by 15 this has changed – new research shows why<p>At age 11, children from poorly educated families are as interested in politics as children from well-educated ones. But by the time they turn 15, children with well-educated parents are 10% more interested in politics than those with poorly educated parents.</p>
<p>The social gap in political engagement is one of the most <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abb4912">persistent</a> problems in western democracies. It leads to disadvantaged people having less say in the democratic process. And it <a href="https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/8454069/Levinson+The+Civic+Empowerment+Gap.pdf?sequence=1">skews</a> electoral results towards the interests of privileged groups in society. </p>
<p>Compared with much of Europe, the UK <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137489753">has the largest gap</a> in voting between young adults from middle-class and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-labour-failed-to-connect-with-the-british-working-class-128082">working-class</a> backgrounds. In a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sf/advance-article/doi/10.1093/sf/soab112/6369004">recent study</a> we sought to determine at what age the gap becomes apparent and whether it persists into adulthood. What determines how <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-must-seize-this-chance-to-bring-young-people-into-the-heart-of-british-democracy-62756">politically aware and active</a> a child will be?</p>
<h2>Youth engagement</h2>
<p>In 2020, we set out to explore the development of <a href="https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/project/post-16-educational-trajectories-and-social-inequalities-in-political-engagement">political engagement</a> between ages 11 and 25. We analysed data from the British Household Panel Study and its successor, <a href="https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/">Understanding Society</a>, the longest-running study of the UK population. </p>
<p>We relied on the question: “How interested would you say you are in politics?” to gauge political interest. And we used the education levels of parents and their political engagement as indicators of class background. </p>
<p>We found that, at age 11, children from the most and least educated families share a broadly similar level of interest in politics. In fact, children from less-educated families actually show a slightly higher level of interest. </p>
<p>However, by age 15 the political interest of children from the most educated parents has hardly changed: they remain as interested in politics as they were when they were 11. But for the least educated families, however, the level of interest children show in politics has markedly declined. After age 15, political interest rises steadily among both groups but the difference between them stays the same.</p>
<p>We also looked at <a href="https://theconversation.com/underpaid-overworked-and-drowning-in-debt-you-wonder-why-young-people-are-voting-again-85298">voting intentions</a>, which is an <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315725222-11/intention-vote-reported-vote-validated-vote-1-christopher-achen-andr%C3%A9-blais">important predictor</a> of voting behaviour. We measured this with a question that asked young people which party they would vote for as adults. We used the response options, “none” and “don’t know”, to signal a lack of intention. </p>
<p>As with political interest, we find a growing social gap on this indicator of political engagement. At age 11 there is no difference between children from well- and less well-educated families in their voting intentions. </p>
<p>As they grow older, both groups become more interested in voting for a particular party. However, this growth is stronger among children from well-educated families. </p>
<p>By age 15, these children express a much greater willingness to vote than their peers from disadvantaged backgrounds and this difference remains stable in the years thereafter. These patterns, therefore, suggest that early adolescence is a crucial stage for social differences in political engagement to emerge. </p>
<h2>Parental input</h2>
<p>The degree to which parents are politically engaged themselves seems to matter, too – and from an early age. We already see a large gap at age 11 between children from politically active families and those from disengaged ones, in terms of how interested they are in politics and whether they intend to vote. </p>
<p>This gap further widens during early adolescence. Children of parents who are not actively engaged in the political process are even less likely to be interested in becoming so by the time they’re 15.</p>
<p>After age 16, the gap stabilises. So, while early childhood seems to be the crucial phase for politically engaged parents to pass their preferences on to their children, early adolescence is the key phase when the education of parents begins to matter.</p>
<p>Our findings show that parents have a lasting influence on their children’s political development. Once established during childhood, social differences in political engagement continue into adulthood. These differences highlight how political inequality is transmitted through the generations. An important task of future research is to examine how exactly educated and engaged parents make their children become more politically engaged.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165428/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jan Germen Janmaat receives funding from The Nuffield Foundation. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bryony Louise Hoskins receives funding from The Nuffield Foundation. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation.</span></em></p>Understanding how early on in childhood political interest is sparked –– and what sparks it –– is crucial to giving more people a voiceJan Germen Janmaat, Professor of political socialization, Department of Education, Practice and Society, UCL Institute of Education, UCLBryony Louise Hoskins, Professor of Comparative Social Science, University of RoehamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1704752021-10-27T10:19:05Z2021-10-27T10:19:05ZWhere does the youth climate movement go next? Climate Fight podcast part 4<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428353/original/file-20211025-13-1to6y8c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5168%2C3448&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/youth-strike-climate-march-friday-future-1406427779">MikeDotta/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Locked out of conferences and company boardrooms, young people have tried to influence the international response to the climate crisis with strikes and protests. What effect does this youth activism have? And where will the movement go next? This is part four of <em>Climate fight: the world’s biggest negotiations</em>, a series on the UN climate summit in Glasgow by <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-anthill-podcast-27460">The Anthill podcast</a>.</p>
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<p>Greta Thunberg’s lone demonstration outside the Swedish parliament in the late summer of 2018 inspired a global day of action involving 4 million people in 150 countries a year later. What was it about her school strike for the climate which seemed to capture the world’s attention? “Young people represent a huge proportion of the global population and they have moral power,” Harriet Thew says, a researcher in climate change governance at the University of Leeds.</p>
<p>Thew studies the participation of young people in the UN climate negotiations. Her research has revealed how younger generations have helped reform UN policy on the education students receive about climate change in schools and universities. Beyond that though: “There isn’t a clear role for young people within the decision-making process.”</p>
<p>Young activist Abel Harvie-Clark from Newcastle in northern England was frustrated with the situation. “When the school strikes started … I realised that no one else was going to do it for us.” Speaking with Thew, Harvie-Clark described his early experiences in the youth climate movement.</p>
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<p>I started getting together with other people in my sixth form and organised a walk-out of about 70 people. Being part of that protest … revealed the wider struggle that we have on our hands.</p>
</blockquote>
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<img alt="COP26: the world's biggest climate talks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><strong>This story is part of The Conversation’s coverage on COP26, the Glasgow climate conference, by experts from around the world.</strong>
<br><em>Amid a rising tide of climate news and stories, The Conversation is here to clear the air and make sure you get information you can trust. <a href="https://page.theconversation.com/cop26-glasgow-2021-climate-change-summit/"><strong>More.</strong></a></em> </p>
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<p>The school climate strikes were the first acts of political expression for many young people. Over the last few years, the movement that grew out of a common demand for generational justice has channelled many different perspectives on the climate crisis, as Thew explains:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We know that climate change doesn’t affect everyone equally. Members of the same local communities … can have quite different experiences, including, women and girls, people living in poverty, people of colour [and] people with disabilities … Youth intersects with all of those groups and that produces unique challenges.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Momentum was with the youth climate movement as it entered 2020, but then the pandemic happened. As lockdowns restricted public gatherings, activists were forced to accept that they were in for a long fight. For Harvie-Clarke, that meant connecting the youth movement with related struggles for climate justice.</p>
<p>“We need to keep educating ourselves on and keep learning about the struggles that people have been fighting against climate change,” he said.</p>
<p>Young people are trying different methods in their pursuit of change. Not all of them see themselves as activists, according to Lynda Dunlop, a senior lecturer in science education at the University of York. She spoke with teenagers living in parts of England and Northern Ireland where companies have started fracking for gas.</p>
<p>“They were concerned about fracking in their local community, but also on the impacts of fossil fuel extraction on the climate,” Dunlop said. “One of the things I found surprising was their preference for other forms of political participation. Things like making legal challenges, signing petitions, writing to MPs.” She said they “respected the processes and wanted them to work” and were frustrated when they didn’t, “regardless of whether they were taking part in protest or not”.</p>
<p>Climate-conscious young people are used to being disappointed by world leaders. But strikes are resuming and youth activists are better informed than ever. Their movement may be only just beginning.</p>
<p>The Climate Fight podcast series is produced by Tiffany Cassidy. Sound design by Eloise Stevens and the theme tune is by Neeta Sarl. The series editor is Gemma Ware. </p>
<p>Newsclips in this episode from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceIE_ehQhtc">Connect4Climate</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOn1qN1v3NE">ABC News In Depth</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ_QkjieLmw">Guardian News</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RaPE5fV_Xg">ITV News</a>. </p>
<p>A transcript of this episode is <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-youth-movement-grows-up-climate-fight-podcast-part-four-transcript-170474">available here.</a></p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/?hl=en">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter?utm_campaign=PodcastTCWeekly&utm_content=newsletter&utm_source=podcast">The Conversation’s free daily email here</a>. You can listen to The Anthill podcast via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/5e3bf1111a6e452f6380a7bc">our RSS feed</a>, or find out how else to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">listen here</a>.</p>
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<img alt="UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423510/original/file-20210928-22-3fcpqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423510/original/file-20210928-22-3fcpqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423510/original/file-20210928-22-3fcpqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423510/original/file-20210928-22-3fcpqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423510/original/file-20210928-22-3fcpqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423510/original/file-20210928-22-3fcpqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423510/original/file-20210928-22-3fcpqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>Climate Fight: the world’s biggest negotiation is a podcast series supported by <a href="https://www.ukri.org/">UK Research and Innovation</a>, the UK’s largest public funder of research and innovation.</em> </p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170475/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The Conversation has received support from UK Research and Innovation to make the Climate Fight podcast series. Harriet Thew is a recipient of the UKRI-funded COP26 fellowship. Lynda Dunlop receives grant funding from the British Educational Research Association and from the The University of York Economic and Social Research Council Impact Acceleration Account. </span></em></p>Listen to the fourth episode of a new series from The Anthill Podcast ahead of the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow.Jack Marley, Environment + Energy Editor and Host of the Climate Fight podcast series, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1701302021-10-20T10:31:38Z2021-10-20T10:31:38ZClimate crisis: how states may be held responsible for impact on children<p>The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child <a href="https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=1351&Lang=en">has determined</a> that a government can, in theory, be held to account for the impact its country’s carbon emissions have on its children, both within and outside of its borders. This is in response to a <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-15-other-children-greta-thunberg-has-filed-a-un-complaint-against-5-countries-heres-what-itll-achieve-124090">complaint</a> filed in September 2019 by youth climate activists, including Greta Thunberg. </p>
<p>The petition alleged that, by failing to reduce carbon emissions in line with <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-1-5-global-warming-limit-is-not-impossible-but-without-political-action-it-soon-will-be-159297">the Paris Agreement</a>, five nations – Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey – were violating their rights to life, to health and to culture, as guaranteed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). <a href="https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1176525238206640136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1176525238206640136%7Ctwgr%5Ehb_2_7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconversation.com%2Fwith-15-other-children-greta-thunberg-has-filed-a-un-complaint-against-5-countries-heres-what-itll-achieve-124090">Thunberg explained</a> that these countries were named for illustrative purposes: they are the highest emitters to have ratified the complaints mechanism of the CRC. </p>
<p>The petition outlined specific impacts of climate change on the individual children’s lives: how the sight of rising sea levels are damaging the mental health of children in Micronesia – undermining their CRC right to health; how, in northern Sweden, children’s CRC right to culture is being denied because climate change is hindering the reindeer herding traditions passed down through generations. </p>
<p>Elsewhere the complaint highlighted rising temperatures in Lagos, Nigeria and related respiratory conditions; the various threats posed by drought conditions in Tunisia, California and South Africa; and the deadly heat waves that have come to characterise French summers. </p>
<p>However, instead of engaging with these specific claims, and determining what specific responsibilities governments might bear as a result, the committee ruled only on a theoretical level. States, it ruled, bear <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ejil/article/29/2/581/5057069">cross-border responsibility</a> towards children for failing mitigate the climate crisis. </p>
<p>This case was the first to be taken by a group of children to a UN body. But while the ruling does mark a milestone in international law, the claimants are right to be disappointed with the outcome. This is a missed opportunity. In refusing to engage with their specific claims, the committee has proven unwilling to ensure that human rights procedures match the urgency of the climate crisis.</p>
<h2>Legal responsibility</h2>
<p>The committee found that states are not taking enough steps to reduce emissions, even when they can reasonably foresee that children in other states will be harmed. Where children have litigated through national courts (and failed), the committee will admit complaints. </p>
<p>In this instance, the committee’s refusal to rule on the specific claims made by these 16 children is precisely because, as it contended, the applicants had not first worked through courts in their respective countries.</p>
<p>However, the committee’s rules of procedure do <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/opiccrc.aspx">state</a> that this requirement can be bypassed when such domestic litigation would be “unreasonably prolonged or unlikely to bring effective relief”. In other words, when it might take too long or be ineffective.</p>
<p>In their <a href="https://childrenvsclimatecrisis.org/">original petition</a>, the young people had duly outlined why no equivalent domestic court cases would succeed. They showed that children struggle to <a href="https://home.crin.org/issues/access-to-justice">access justice</a>, they outlined the urgency of the climate crisis and they claimed that no single court could provide the remedy sought in the petition against these five nations.</p>
<p>On the face of it, then, these reasons provided the committee with a firm legal basis on which to override the rule that applicants work through domestic courts before reaching international level with a climate case. Although the standard for bypassing the rule is high, recent cases <a href="https://www.ejiltalk.org/breaking-new-ground-again-the-cerd-committees-decision-on-admissibility-in-palestine-v-israel/">have demonstrated</a> that it is not impossible. However, the committee did not go down that route. </p>
<h2>Lost opportunity</h2>
<p>The committee published five separate decisions, <a href="https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC%2fC%2f88%2fD%2f104%2f2019&Lang=en">one for each state</a> named in the petition. In these, it spends little time outlining why they do not accept the arguments the young people have made. </p>
<p>In its decision relating specifically to <a href="https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC%2fC%2f88%2fD%2f107%2f2019&Lang=en">Germany</a>, the committee refers to the recent case of Neubauer v Germany in which a young climate activist from the Fridays for Future movement was successful in arguing that the German state needed to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/29/historic-german-ruling-says-climate-goals-not-tough-enough">change its climate policy</a>. The committee states that this is evidence that national courts can provide avenues for meaningful climate litigation. </p>
<p>Although this may be true in Germany, there are four other states in this UN complaint where it is not at all clear that national courts would follow suit. The entire basis for the committee refusing to hear the youths’ case was that they did not first go through national courts. It is therefore disappointing that the committee did not elaborate further on why an exception to the rule could not be made, at least in the case of the four other states.</p>
<p>This finding means that youth litigants are expected to find laws and legal representatives to help them litigate in their own countries. Neither is a given. And even if they were to manage this, they would most likely already be well into adulthood. The climate crisis, meanwhile, will be even more severe, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/aug/09/humans-have-caused-unprecedented-and-irreversible-change-to-climate-scientists-warn">perhaps irreversible</a>. This surely qualifies as litigation that is “unlikely to bring effective relief” and could therefore be bypassed.</p>
<p>The past three years have increasingly seen <a href="https://archive.discoversociety.org/2020/03/04/it-is-time-to-accept-that-children-have-a-right-to-be-political/">children speak out</a> because of the devastating urgency of the climate crisis. This case in particular has demonstrated the <a href="https://brill.com/view/title/11631">level of engagement</a> that children can have with environmental and other political governance. </p>
<p>Interestingly, the committee saw fit to write a summary and explanation of the decision in <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CRC/Open_letter_on_climate_change.pdf">child-friendly language</a>. This represents a step forward for <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CRC/Open_letter_on_climate_change.pdf">child-friendly justice</a> at an international level where <a href="https://brill.com/view/title/35870">children are rarely litigants</a>.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the young litigants in this case feel let down. As Catarina Lorenzo (14, from Brazil) <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2021/10/12/2312125/27401/en/UN-Committee-on-the-Rights-of-the-Child-Turns-Its-Back-on-Climate-Change-Petition-From-Greta-Thunberg-and-Children-From-Around-the-World.html">has put it</a>, “I am disappointed in the committee for not seeing this case as admissible in a moment in which we are desperate for real and effective action, as we are facing a crisis, the climate crisis.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170130/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aoife Daly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The long-awaited ruling by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is as groundbreaking as it is disappointing. Where to next for young climate activists?Aoife Daly, Lecturer in Law, University College CorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1626492021-06-21T19:13:04Z2021-06-21T19:13:04ZCritical race theory sparks activism in students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406844/original/file-20210616-25-1kjf5g1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C37%2C6164%2C4078&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Youth organizers tend to outperform their peers in school. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/girl-raises-her-fist-in-the-air-in-front-of-the-minneapolis-news-photo/1223424519?adppopup=true">Brandon Bell/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Critical race theory – an academic framework that holds that racism is embedded in society – has become the subject of an <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05">intense debate</a> about how issues of race should or shouldn’t be taught in schools.</p>
<p>Largely missing in the debate is evidence of how exposure to critical race theory actually affects students. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BMfdLFYAAAAJ&hl=en">researcher who specializes in youth activism</a>, I have conducted research on and with <a href="https://fcyo.org/info/youth-organizing/">youth organizing</a> groups in which critical race theory is a core component of the political education. Eighty-two percent of youth organizing groups <a href="https://fcyo.org/uploads/resources/20-years-of-youth-power-the-2020-national-youth-organizing-field-scan_resource_609d4a85ebe152ee0283274e.pdf">regularly offer political education</a>, which involves a critical examination of social issues, usually through workshops and group discussions.</p>
<p>My <a href="https://publisher.abc-clio.com/9781440842139/">research</a> – along with that of <a href="https://democracyeducationjournal.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1075&context=home">other</a> <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10508406.2021.1880189">scholars</a> – points to three important outcomes for young people who are taught critical race theory as part of youth organizing.</p>
<h2>1. Ignites passion</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406848/original/file-20210616-3738-1ddec7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A little Black girl on a street holds a sign that reads 'Power to my people!!'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406848/original/file-20210616-3738-1ddec7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406848/original/file-20210616-3738-1ddec7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406848/original/file-20210616-3738-1ddec7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406848/original/file-20210616-3738-1ddec7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406848/original/file-20210616-3738-1ddec7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406848/original/file-20210616-3738-1ddec7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406848/original/file-20210616-3738-1ddec7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Studying critical race theory helps people understand how systemic oppression can impact daily life.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/families-participate-in-a-childrens-march-in-solidarity-news-photo/1218984886?adppopup=true">Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>First, research shows that learning to apply a critical race theoretical perspective and think critically about society do not fuel a sense of divisiveness among youth, as <a href="https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20210&cosponId=35697">some politicians</a> have suggested.</p>
<p>Instead, I have found that doing so can ignite passion in youths to work collaboratively to bring about social change aimed at equity. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2014.928213">my research</a>, I have observed that when youth organizers learn how power and privilege are reproduced from one generation to the next through racialized policies like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1006/juec.1999.2166">redlining</a> or discrimination in housing, <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED535555.pdf">funding school districts</a> on the basis of property taxes, which favors wealthier school districts, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904816681526">tracking students</a> into different academic levels, they often become inspired to take action to redress unfair conditions.</p>
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<p>Many of the low-income youth organizers of color I have studied come to realize that most of their struggles in life are not their fault. They develop hope that reform is possible, if only policymakers and the public embrace more equitable policies. And so they set to work devising and advocating for such policies.</p>
<p>In one youth organizing group <a href="https://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI3509403/">colleagues</a> and I have studied, students teach one another a model called “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2014.928213">the spiral of oppression</a>.” </p>
<p>This framework helps young people understand how societal oppression of groups of people, such as racial minorities, spirals as individuals from those groups internalize oppression and begin to act on the negative stereotypes they have internalized. These actions, in turn, lead to further oppression, such as greater police surveillance, supervision and state violence as <a href="https://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI3509403/">the spiral continues</a>.</p>
<p>Across years, participants repeatedly told me how empowering it was to learn this framework. It helped them to make sense of what they saw happening in their communities. More significantly, it prompted them to consider how they could disrupt the spiral, both individually and collectively. Rather than seeing themselves through the binary lens of victim or oppressor, they adopted identities as change agents, committed to institutional and societal reform. </p>
<h2>2. Improves academics</h2>
<p>Second, research shows youth organizers become more academically successful in school as they progress through organizing. </p>
<p>For example, in one study, I found that two-thirds of the actively involved youth organizers in Philadelphia’s lowest-performing schools <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2014.866868">significantly improved their grade-point averages</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, other scholars have found that youth organizers are more likely than their peers to report that they received <a href="https://idea.gseis.ucla.edu/projects/learning-to-lead">mostly A and B grades</a> in high school, and they go on to attend four-year colleges at higher rates. Ironically, research shows that while youth organizing helps young people become more aware of inequities within and across schools, it can also make them <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831211411079">less alienated in school</a> and more committed to academics.</p>
<h2>3. Lifelong benefits</h2>
<p>Third, the benefits of being exposed to critical theory through youth organizing do not end in high school or college. My research has shown that formative experiences in youth organizing can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2014.928213">shape the choices individuals make</a> in their professional and civic lives as adults.</p>
<p>Alumni explain how the values and dispositions cultivated in organizing led them not only to adopt pro-social careers as, for example, educators or counselors, but also to find ways to continue to participate constructively in the civic life of their communities as young adults.</p>
<p>Other researchers have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12315">turned up similar results</a>. In one large-scale <a href="https://idea.gseis.ucla.edu/projects/learning-to-lead">study</a> in California, researchers found that as adults, former youth organizers are far more likely than their peers to have volunteered, worked on an issue affecting their community, participated in civic organizations and registered to vote. These results raise the question: Could such outcomes become more widespread if schools adopted some of the principles and curricular frameworks of youth organizing, including critical race theory?</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>As the debate over critical race theory and its place in schools rages on, it is important that the discourse be grounded in evidence. </p>
<p>Studies of youth organizing show that when taught well, the analytical tools of critical race theory can support valuable long-term <a href="https://publisher.abc-clio.com/9781440842139/">educational</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2014.928213">professional</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X11422328">civic</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2018.1556457">political</a> outcomes.</p>
<p>These outcomes are most pronounced for low-income youth of color. When politicians <a href="https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/map-where-critical-race-theory-is-under-attack/2021/06">advance legislation to block the use of critical race theory in schools</a>, they may actually be blocking an important means of fostering outcomes that would make America’s democracy more robust and vibrant than it would otherwise be.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162649/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jerusha Osberg Conner has received funding from the Surdna Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the New Ventures Fund, and the League of Conservation Voters. </span></em></p>A researcher on youth organizing presents her evidence for how critical race theory benefits students and society.Jerusha Osberg Conner, Professor of Education, Villanova UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1560922021-03-07T14:36:24Z2021-03-07T14:36:24ZStop telling girls to smile — it pressures them to accept the unjust status quo<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388104/original/file-20210305-19-12d6kla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C0%2C8456%2C5646&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Global movements for social change are being led by girls, who are the most affected by environmental, labour and social justice issues.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Girls are constantly told to smile, from T-shirts sold in stores that say “<a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/Everyone-Loves-a-Happy-Girl-YOUTH-SHORT-SLEEVE-TEE/119028349">everyone loves a happy girl</a>” to the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/02/19/807407891/artist-tatyana-fazlalizadeh-wants-you-to-stop-telling-women-to-smile">catcallers telling young women to smile when they walk down the street</a>. </p>
<p>Audrey Hepburn once famously stated that “<a href="https://www.momtastic.com/parenting/parenting-in-the-news/575251-happy-girls-are-the-prettiest/">happy girls are the prettiest girls</a>” — now this quote is reiterated in the post-feminist marketplace on T-shirts, pillow cases and stationery.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most public callout to a girl to smile was Donald Trump’s caustically sarcastic tweet that climate activist Greta Thunberg “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/24/she-seems-very-happy-trump-appears-to-mock-greta-thunbergs-emotional-speech">seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!</a>”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-end-of-the-trump-years-means-for-american-and-global-girlhood-154227">What the end of the Trump years means for American and global girlhood</a>
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<p>But lift up the hood of this pressure to be perceived as carefree and happy and look underneath: something much more disturbing is revealed.</p>
<p>I have been studying the experiences of girls, particularly tweens aged eight to 12, with regards to consumer culture for the past 15 years. The pressure on girls to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540518806954">be fun, happy and smiling</a> reveals much about the cultural expectations projected onto girls and girlhood.</p>
<h2>Perpetual fun?</h2>
<p>This constant expectation of girls to be always smiling depoliticizes girls and positions them as compliant in their own subjugation. “Fun” acts as a distraction from deeper political issues, discouraging girls from considering the exploitation and violence that girls worldwide face.</p>
<p>Directing their attention to the myriad social and political issues facing girls, like the <a href="https://plan-international.org/emergencies/effects-of-climate-change-girls-rights">climate crisis</a> or <a href="https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/">missing and murdered Indigenous girls and women</a>, would upset the happiness and fun of girlhood.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388101/original/file-20210305-13-fmuty4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Young girls lead a MMIWG march" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388101/original/file-20210305-13-fmuty4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388101/original/file-20210305-13-fmuty4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388101/original/file-20210305-13-fmuty4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388101/original/file-20210305-13-fmuty4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388101/original/file-20210305-13-fmuty4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388101/original/file-20210305-13-fmuty4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388101/original/file-20210305-13-fmuty4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Young girls walk together during the annual Women’s Memorial March in Vancouver on Feb. 14, 2021. The march is held to honour missing and murdered women and girls from the community with stops along the way to commemorate where women were last seen or found.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Feminist scholar Sara Ahmed writes that <a href="https://socialtextjournal.org/the-promise-of-happiness/">happiness is promised to those who commit to living their life in an unchallenging way that does not upset the status quo</a>. To challenge the status quo by drawing attention to these issues disrupts the fantasy.</p>
<p>If everyone loves a happy girl, as the T-shirt says, then unhappy girls are unlovable: it’s a clear warning to girls to maintain happiness or else face being “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549417733003">psychologically and aesthetically unappealing</a>.”</p>
<p>Fun can be had with others, but at its root is an individual endeavour to be responsible for one’s own fun. The <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dont-tell-me-to-smile-more-provocative-proclamation-for-women-to-reclaim-ownership-of-their-smile-launched-by-undnyable-300884702.html">call to smile</a> is not an invitation to celebrate the resolution of the misogynistic and patriarchal structures that are often at the root of unhappiness.</p>
<p>Happiness and fun are forms of <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2019/03/08/author-interview-qa-with-sarah-banet-weiser-on-empowered-popular-feminism-and-popular-misogyny/">popular feminism</a> that frame gender equality as individual empowerment eclipsing a feminist structural critique. Unhappiness deviates from the <a href="https://soundcloud.com/toprankpodcast/episode-18-commodity-feminism">post-feminist script</a> in which women — who are responsible for their own happiness and emancipation — need to think positively and be inspired to make change. The emphasis is on individual actions over collective consciousness. </p>
<p>These moral demands for happiness and fun <a href="https://2019.steirischerherbst.at/de/vorherbst/1377/the-happiness-imperative">undermine citizenship and commitments to community</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388102/original/file-20210305-17-1w5qsje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A girl holds a cardboard sign with a picture of George Floyd and text reading I CANT BREATHE" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388102/original/file-20210305-17-1w5qsje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388102/original/file-20210305-17-1w5qsje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388102/original/file-20210305-17-1w5qsje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388102/original/file-20210305-17-1w5qsje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388102/original/file-20210305-17-1w5qsje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388102/original/file-20210305-17-1w5qsje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388102/original/file-20210305-17-1w5qsje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A girl at a protest in Washington, D.C., holds a sign featuring George Floyd.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Obi Onyeador/Unsplash)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Girls’ leadership</h2>
<p>The call to happiness and fun lets patriarchal structures and institutions off the hook for the injustices, unhappiness and pains of girls worldwide, and posits the responsibility for their own happiness on girls’ shoulders. But girls are no longer complying, including Greta Thunberg, who brilliantly turned Trump’s own words back on him.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1351890941087522820"}"></div></p>
<p><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/greta-thunberg-trump-tweet-happy-old-man-b1790085.html">Thunberg’s clapback</a> to Trump flips the script exposing the misogynistic and ageist rhetoric on girls to be happy.</p>
<p>A global youth movement led by girls — like water activists <a href="https://naaee.org/about-us/people/autumn-peltier">Autumn Peltier</a> and <a href="https://www.maricopeny.com/">Mari Copeny</a>, education activist <a href="https://malala.org/malalas-story">Malala Yousufzai</a> and climate activist <a href="https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/vanessa-nakate/">Vanessa Nakate</a> — are countering these narratives. They are fighting <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/01/19/797298179/you-need-to-act-now-meet-4-girls-working-to-save-the-warming-world">against climate change</a> and advocating for social change using a whole and complex range of emotions,including happiness and fun. </p>
<p>Girls are refusing to be dismissed by misogynistic critics who tell them to “smile more.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156092/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natalie Coulter receives funding from SSHRC.</span></em></p>Telling girls to smile pressures distracts them from the very real, dangerous and sometimes deadly challenges that girls around the world face.Natalie Coulter, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, and Director of the Institute for Research on Digital Literacies, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1505042020-12-22T16:56:16Z2020-12-22T16:56:16ZYoung Muslim women are leading environmental movements grounded in their beliefs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375911/original/file-20201218-21-f3slz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C52%2C1022%2C714&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jana Jandal Alirifai, a 17-year-old Syrian Canadian and coordinator for Climate Strike Canada, participated as a Syrian delegate in the MockCOP26.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Tahmina Aziz)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Weeks prior to the lockdowns and closures that came with the COVID-19 pandemic, UN <a href="https://unfccc.int/news/2020-is-a-pivotal-year-for-climate-un-chief-and-cop26-president">Secretary General António Guterres said</a> 2020 would be a “pivotal year for how we address climate change.” </p>
<p>Revamped <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/16/how-covid-19-could-impact-climate-crisis">emission goals</a> were expected from 196 countries, but with <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/conferences/glasgow-climate-change-conference">international meetings postponed</a> due to the pandemic, the stark reality is that 2020 is one of the <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/12/1079042">hottest years recorded</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/eco.2019.0018">Widespread action</a> based on a deep connection between people and the Earth may be the space of hope. In researching what motivates Muslim women to connect with the Earth and lead environmental activism, I’ve discovered courage and deep conviction to be driving forces. </p>
<p>Young Muslim women are transcending boundaries to create spaces of activism. Their efforts are <a href="https://lobelog.com/islam-and-environmentalism/">acts of worship</a> that integrate social and political realities. </p>
<h2>Islam and eco-consciousness</h2>
<p>Historically, <a href="https://funci.org/islams-view-of-nature/?lang=en">Muslim scholars</a> coupled their study of nature to their understanding of Allah (God). <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Quran">The Qur’an</a> articulates how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3518-2">eco-consciousness permeates every aspect of life</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.15551/LSGDC.V42I1.1113">explains nature as a complete</a>, complex, interconnected and interdependent system. It highlights the importance of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jis/etv034">recognizing and preserving the <em>mizan</em></a>, or balance. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Verily, We have created everything in equal proportion and measure … (<a href="https://quran.com/54/49?translations=">Qur’an, 54:49</a>).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The natural world manifests many of <a href="https://rissc.jo/docs/QuranEnv-Combined.pdf">Allah’s attributes</a>, including beauty, patience and mercy. Reflecting and connecting with the Earth fosters deeper understanding of Allah and the truth. Honouring and protecting the Earth becomes an act of worship. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We did not create the heavens and the Earth, and what lies between them except with Truth … (<a href="https://quran.com/15/85?translations=">Qur’an, 15:85</a>).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Several Qur'anic chapters such as the “Bee,” “Fig” and “Sun” make the <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2012/04/green-muslims-eco-islam-and-evolving-climate-change-consciousness/">conversation between nature and scripture</a> explicit. The Qur’an explains the Earth as a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20836989?seq=1">sacred responsibility</a> entrusted by Allah on humans. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is He who has appointed you vicegerent on the Earth … (<a href="https://www.islamicstudies.info/tafheem.php?sura=6&verse=155&to=165">Qur’an, 6:165</a>)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Every being exists within an interactive community, glorifying Allah. Destruction or loss of any entity is <a href="https://rissc.jo/docs/QuranEnv-Combined.pdf">tragic and cruel</a>, but also an offence against Allah’s creation.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All living beings roaming the Earth and winged birds soaring in the sky are communities like yourselves … (<a href="https://quran.com/6/38?translations=">Qur’an, 6:38</a>).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>From <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-020-00192-7">sustainability</a>, to species loss, Islam holds teachings relevant to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-017-0444-7">environmentalism</a>. </p>
<h2>Young Muslim women and activism</h2>
<p>I have collected narratives from nearly 60 Muslim women around the world for my research. Here are a few: </p>
<p>Kadiatou Balde and Zainab Koli founded <a href="https://www.instagram.com/faithfully.sustainable/?hl=en">Faithfully Sustainable</a>, which blends faith and environmental sustainability through education, activism and entrepreneurship. Faithfully Sustainable engages with an online community of more than 2,500 members through social media posts, talks and fellowships. Across spaces of minority narratives, they encourage members to understand and adopt sustainable practices.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CCHCndnDTlr","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Ndeye Aida Marie Ndieguene, a 24-year-old entrepreneur and civil engineer, is the founding CEO of the social enterprise <a href="https://www.facebook.com/EcobuildersMadeinSenegal/">EcoBuilders Senegal</a>. Ndieguene uses recycled tires, bottles and natural materials to build affordable crop storage space for farmers to prevent crop loss and maximize food security. </p>
<p>Ndieguene discovered that laterite, a reddish, clay-like material and local natural resource, was historically used as a building material. She successfully incorporated laterite in her work, reintroducing Indigenous knowledge and methods. Ndieguene says the mention of trees in the Qur'an taught her about patience and being grounded in her identity and principles.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Have you not seen how Allah sets forth a parable? A good word like a good tree, whose root is firm and its branches reach the sky … (<a href="https://quran.com/14/24?translations=">Qur’an, 14:24</a>).</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Women working in a field." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374033/original/file-20201209-21-w3y56x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374033/original/file-20201209-21-w3y56x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374033/original/file-20201209-21-w3y56x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374033/original/file-20201209-21-w3y56x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374033/original/file-20201209-21-w3y56x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374033/original/file-20201209-21-w3y56x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374033/original/file-20201209-21-w3y56x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ndeye Aida Marie Ndieguene founded EcoBuilders Senegal, a company that uses recycled and natural materials in its projects.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Ndeye Aida Marie Ndieguene)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mishka Banuri is the 20-year-old co-founder of <a href="https://utahyes.org/">Utah Youth Environmental Solutions</a> (UYES). UYES empowers youth to hold government officials accountable in combating the climate crisis. In 2018, she <a href="https://bioneers.org/mishka-banuri-first-generation-immigrant-youth-climate-justice-zstf1911/">led efforts to pass a resolution</a> in the Utah legislature to recognize the validity and existential threat of climate change. </p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Mishka Banuri delivers a keynote talk on youth climate activism at the 2019 Bioneers Conference.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Recognizing her own intersectionality as a <a href="https://earthjustice.org/blog/2020-july/mishka-banuri-climate-justice">Muslim Pakistani American</a>, Banuri says, “liberation is synonymous with autonomy: having the ability to choose how to use our bodies and minds, to be able to breathe clean air and to drink clean water.” Banuri explains how Qur'anic stories illustrate the connections between all of humanity and the natural world, “… when we pollute the Earth, we are essentially polluting ourselves.” </p>
<p>When the UN postponed the <a href="https://unfccc.int/news/cop26-postponed">COP26 climate change conference due to COVID-19</a>, youth activists worldwide led an online <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/11/27/youth-activists-demand-damages-climate-victims-virtual-mock-cop26/">MockCOP26</a>. Jana Jandal Alirifai, a 17-year-old Syrian Canadian and coordinator for <a href="https://www.facebook.com/climatestrikecanada/">Climate Strike Canada</a>, participated as a Syrian delegate.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1177612823863672838"}"></div></p>
<p>Alirifai balances her activism through spaces of opposing states of privilege between Canada and Syria. Syria is locked in a war, suffering from shortage in food, water and basic necessities, further exacerbated by climate change. For Alirifai, the <a href="https://sunnah.com/nawawi40/26">Prophetic narration</a> “removing a harmful object from the road is a charity,” is connected to her action on climate change. “There’s a really huge thing in the way and I need to work to remove this extremely harmful thing!” she said.</p>
<h2>Immediate action</h2>
<p>From an Islamic perspective, environmental activism is grounded in honouring the <a href="https://muslim-perspectives.com/images/articles/The-Holy-Quran-and-the-Environmental-Crisis9678.pdf">relationship</a> between oneself, Allah and Allah’s creation. In my research, an overwhelming majority of women expressed how they draw inspiration from the <a href="https://sunnah.com/urn/2304770">Prophetic narration</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If the Final Hour comes while you have a seedling in your hands, then let them plant it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://doaj.org/article/1b31e5dba017420a9e473bc29b33644a">Themes</a> emerging from this include: finding hope amidst crisis, acting with calm consistency, working to benefit future generations, individual responsibility and recognizing one’s place and deep interconnection with the Earth. </p>
<p><a href="https://bioneers.org/mishka-banuri-first-generation-immigrant-youth-climate-justice-zstf1911/">During the 2019 Bioneers Conference</a>, Banuri, who delivered a keynote talk, reflected on growing up in an Islamophobic climate in the U.S. “Muslims, like so many other people, have to constantly prove our humanity so that our sacred spaces are not vandalized, so that we can get jobs, and so that we can stay alive,” she said. </p>
<p>Despite such challenges, young Muslim women are leading change by carving spaces that acknowledge their identities, and are grounded in their beliefs. </p>
<p>At the <a href="https://worldleaders.columbia.edu/">World Leaders Forum</a> this month, <a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/un-secretary-general-speaks-state-planet">Guterres said</a>, “Now is the time to transform humankind’s relationship with the natural world…. And we must do so together.” More Muslim leaders and our leaders at large must act on the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biz088">climate emergency facing the Earth</a> with the courage and conviction of these young women.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Memona Hossain does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Historically, Muslim scholars have coupled their study of nature to their understanding of Allah. Today, young Muslim women are leading change through an Islamic eco-consciousness with grit.Memona Hossain, Phd student in Applied Ecosychology, Project Nature Connect (Akamai University), University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1481622020-11-16T13:22:07Z2020-11-16T13:22:07ZConnecting to nature is good for kids – but they may need help coping with a planet in peril<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366800/original/file-20201030-13-cr69xz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C4682%2C2815&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Deep worry about climate change and biodiversity loss can affect kids' mental health.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/october-2020-berlin-a-child-walks-through-a-small-forest-on-news-photo/1229230508?adppopup=true">Kira Hofmann/Picture Alliance via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As an environmental psychologist who works to improve young people’s access to nature, I recently completed a review that brings <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pan3.10128">two bodies of research</a> together: one on connecting children and adolescents with nature, and the second on supporting healthy coping when they realize they are part of a planet in peril.</p>
<p>My review shows that children and adolescents <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pan3.10128">benefit from living near nature</a> and having adults in their lives who encourage free play and outdoor discovery. When they feel connected to nature, they are more likely to report good health and a sense of well-being, more likely to get high scores for creative thinking, and more inclined to show cooperative, helping behaviors. They are also more likely to say they are taking action to conserve nature, such as by feeding birds, saving energy and recycling.</p>
<p>On the flip side, lack of access to nature has adverse effects. For example, COVID-19 restrictions on travel and social gathering led <a href="https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/2020/04/10/covid-19-era-renewed-appreciation-our-parks-and-open-spaces">more people to visit parks</a> to escape stress and move freely. But some families don’t have safe, attractive parks nearby, or their local parks are so heavily used that it’s hard to maintain safe distances. Under these conditions, city families stuck indoors reported <a href="https://nyti.ms/2BrX9fH">mounting stress and deteriorating behavior</a> in their children. </p>
<p>My research literature review also shows that <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pan3.10128">feeling connected with nature can bring difficult emotions</a> as well as happiness and well-being. When young people are asked about their hopes and fears for the future, many describe environmental breakdown. For example, when a doctoral student I supervised asked 50 10- to 11-year-olds in Denver what the future would be like, almost three-quarters <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2011.602131">shared dystopic views</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Everything will die out, and there will be less trees and less plants, and there will be less nature. It just won’t be such a great Earth anymore.”</p>
<p>“I feel sad because the animals are going to die.” </p>
<p>“I feel sad because when I die I am probably gonna have a grandson or a great grandson by then and maybe them or their son or nephew is going to have to experience the end of the world.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Children who worry about the environment are likely to report that they are doing what they can to protect nature, but they almost always <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2012.02.004">report individual actions</a> like riding their bike to school or saving energy at home. Knowing that climate change and biodiversity loss are bigger problems than they can solve themselves can affect their mental health. </p>
<p>Fortunately, the research also shows some key ways adults can help children and teens work through these feelings and maintain hope that they – in alliance with others – can address environmental problems constructively.</p>
<h2>1. Create safe opportunities to share emotions</h2>
<p>When family, friends and teachers listen sympathetically and offer support, young people are more likely to feel hopeful that people’s actions <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916518763894">can make a positive difference</a>. Opportunities to envision a promising future, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2017.1367916">plan pathways to get there</a> and have hands-on experiences of working toward this goal also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2020.1765131">build hope</a>.</p>
<h2>2. Encourage time outdoors in nature</h2>
<p>Free time in nature and opportunities to develop comfort and confidence in nature are positive experiences in themselves; and by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916518806686">boosting well-being</a>, providing time in nature can contribute to young people’s resilience. </p>
<h2>3. Build community with others who care for nature</h2>
<p>Meeting other people who love and care for nature <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pan3.10128">affirms young people’s own feelings</a> of connection and shows them they’re not alone in working for a better world. Learning individual actions that add up to making a difference, or joining collective efforts to improve the environment, simultaneously demonstrate a sense of connection with nature and commitment to its care.</p>
<h2>4. Empower their ideas</h2>
<p>It’s important to <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781613321003/placemaking-with-children-and-youth/">treat young people as partners</a> in addressing environmental problems in their families, schools, communities and cities. A boy who was part of a group of children who created climate action proposals for his city in the Mountain West summarized the benefits. After they presented their ideas to their city council and got approval to launch a tree-planting campaign, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2019.1675594">he noted</a>, “There’s something about it … getting together, creating projects, knowing each other, working together.” </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Research is clear: Children and young people need free time to connect with nature, but it’s also important to support them when they struggle with the consequences of feeling part of a natural world that is currently at risk.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148162/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Chawla is affiliated with the Children and Nature Network as a member of their Scientific Advisory Committee. </span></em></p>Here are four ways adults can help kids work through their worries about the environment.Louise Chawla, Professor Emerita of Environmental Design, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1380562020-05-14T19:10:56Z2020-05-14T19:10:56ZAfter coronavirus: Global youth reveal that the social value of art has never mattered more<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334838/original/file-20200513-156651-1q9nfm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C51%2C1920%2C1261&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students in an after-school drama club in Athens rehearse their performance about the refugee crisis, March 2017.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Kathleen Gallagher)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Health and government officials <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-52642222">around the globe</a> are slowly and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/coronavirus-covid19-canada-world-may13-1.5567371">ever-so-tentatively moving to relax lockdowns</a> due to coronavirus.</p>
<p>In Canada, where the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/covid-19-coronavirus-ontario-intensive-care-doctor-1.5504349">possibility of health-care collapse</a> seems to have been averted (for the time being), some are beginning to ask questions other than “when will the pandemic end?” Instead, they’re turning towards “how will we move forward?” </p>
<p>Young people have some answers that warrant our attention. Over the past five years, through my <a href="https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/dr/">collaborative ethnographic research</a> with 250 young people in drama classrooms in Canada, India, Taiwan, Greece and England, I have gained remarkable <a href="https://www.springer.com/us/book/9789811512810">insight into these young people’s experiences and assessments of the world</a>. </p>
<p>I found crisis after crisis being shouldered by young people. Through their theatre-making, they documented their concerns and hope, and they rallied around common purposes. They did this despite disagreement and difference. </p>
<p>Beyond simply creating art for art’s sake, or for school credits, many of the young people I encountered are building social movements and creative projects around a different vision for our planet. And they are calling us in. This is an unprecedented moment for intergenerational justice and we need to seize it.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334837/original/file-20200513-156629-1dalgzi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334837/original/file-20200513-156629-1dalgzi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334837/original/file-20200513-156629-1dalgzi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=294&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334837/original/file-20200513-156629-1dalgzi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=294&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334837/original/file-20200513-156629-1dalgzi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=294&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334837/original/file-20200513-156629-1dalgzi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334837/original/file-20200513-156629-1dalgzi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334837/original/file-20200513-156629-1dalgzi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students from Prerna School in Lucknow, India, rally for the rights of girls.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Kathleen Gallagher)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Crises are connected</h2>
<p>I have had an up-close look at how seemingly disparate crises around the globe are deeply connected through divisive systems that don’t acknowledge or respect youth concerns. I have also learned how young people are disproportionately affected by the misguided politics of a fractured world. </p>
<p>In England, <a href="https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526146816.00018">young people were burdened</a> by the divisive rhetoric of the Brexit campaign and its ensuing aftermath. </p>
<p>In India, young women were using their education to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2019.1609652">build solidarity</a> in the face of dehumanizing gender oppression. </p>
<p>In Greece, young people were <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315149325">shouldering the weight</a> of a decade-long economic crisis compounded by a horrifying refugee crisis. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/solidarity-with-refugees-cant-survive-on-compassion-in-crisis-stricken-societies-of-greece-and-italy-133278">Solidarity with refugees can’t survive on compassion in crisis-stricken societies of Greece and Italy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In Taiwan, young people on the cusp of adulthood were trying to <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2018/08/02/activist-legacy-of-taiwan-s-sunflower-movement-pub-76966">square the social pressures</a> of traditional culture with their own ambitions in a far-from-hopeful economic landscape. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334845/original/file-20200513-167762-gux8sw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334845/original/file-20200513-167762-gux8sw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334845/original/file-20200513-167762-gux8sw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334845/original/file-20200513-167762-gux8sw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334845/original/file-20200513-167762-gux8sw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334845/original/file-20200513-167762-gux8sw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334845/original/file-20200513-167762-gux8sw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Second-year theatre students at the National University of Tainan, Taiwan, warm up with drama activities, November 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Kathleen Gallagher)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Toronto, youth tried to understand why the rhetoric of multiculturalism seemed both true and false, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08929092.2017.1370625">why racism persists</a> — and, in so doing, they spoke from perspectives grounded in their intersectional (white, racialized, sexual- and gender-diverse) identities. </p>
<p>They embraced the reality that everything in popular culture may enter a drama classroom. But they responded to current news stories — like the 2016 presidential debates in the United States — by saying that they had different and more pressing concerns, like mental health support and transphobia. </p>
<h2>Hope through creative work</h2>
<p>Today’s young people are a generation that has come of age during a host of global crises. Inequality, environmental destruction, systemic oppression of many kinds weigh heavily. </p>
<p>I found a youth cohort who, despite many not yet having the right to vote, have <a href="https://fridaysforfuture.org/">well-honed political capacities</a>, are birthing countless <a href="https://canadianwomen.org/the-facts/the-metoo-movement-in-canada/">global hashtag movements</a> and inspiring generations of <a href="https://moveme.berkeley.edu/project/marchforourlives/">young and old</a>.</p>
<p>These marginalized youth are aware that their communities have been living with and responding to catastrophic impacts of <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/years-black-lives-matter-inspires-protest-movements/story?id=56702439">crises of injustice and inequalities</a> long before now.</p>
<h2>Practising hope</h2>
<p>How do these youth live with their awareness of global injustices and what these imply for the years ahead? We learned some disturbing things: as young people age and move further away from their primary relationships (parents, teachers, schoolmates), they feel less optimistic about their personal futures. </p>
<p>But in terms of hope, we learned something very recognizable to many of us now: many young people practise hope, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/14/young-person-coronavirus-covid-19-power-of-hope">even when they feel hopeless</a>. They do this both in social movements <a href="https://journals.sfu.ca/cje/index.php/cje-rce/article/view/2499/2476">they participate in and in creative work they undertake with others</a>. </p>
<p>This is something we can all learn from. In Canada, we are maintaining social distancing as a shared effort. Acting together by keeping apart is how we are flattening the curve, as all the <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6826198/coronavirus-good-news-curve-canada-graph/">experts continue to tell us</a>.</p>
<p>We know that in communities around the world, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/18/politics-public-covid-19-tobacco-johnson">government leadership matters enormously</a>. But citizens, social trust and collective will matter at least as much. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334518/original/file-20200512-82361-hexhch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334518/original/file-20200512-82361-hexhch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334518/original/file-20200512-82361-hexhch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334518/original/file-20200512-82361-hexhch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334518/original/file-20200512-82361-hexhch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334518/original/file-20200512-82361-hexhch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334518/original/file-20200512-82361-hexhch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334518/original/file-20200512-82361-hexhch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Young people from the Canley Youth Theatre, based in Coventry, England, rehearse their play ‘Museum of Living Stories,’ based on their personal memories, June 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Kathleen Gallagher)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Polarization</h2>
<p>In this pandemic, institutions, like <a href="https://www.utoronto.ca/news/u-t-researchers-mobilize-resources-produce-equipment-health-care-workers">universities</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/bauer-equipment-visors-masks-1.5509778">businesses</a> and <a href="https://www.toronto.com/news-story/9936009-toronto-residents-and-entrepreneurs-help-those-in-need-due-to-covid-19/">individual citizens</a> have stepped up remarkably in the interests of the common good and our shared fate.</p>
<p>However, Jennifer Welsh, Canada Research Chair in Global Governance and Security at McGill University, argues that the defining feature <a href="https://houseofanansi.com/products/the-return-of-history">of the last decade is polarization</a>, existing across many different liberal democracies and globally. </p>
<p>Along with this, the value of fairness has been deeply corroded because of growing inequality and persistent historic inequalities we have failed to address, like <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/indigenous-memo-to-canada-were-not-your-incompetent-children/article37511319/">Indigenous sovereignty and land rights in Canada</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-road-to-reconciliation-starts-with-the-un-declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples-122305">The road to reconciliation starts with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the context of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/membership/2019/jun/22/populism-new-exploring-rise-paul-lewis">rise of populist politicians</a> and <a href="https://migration.unu.edu/publications/reports/the-rise-of-nationalist-politics-and-policy-implications-for-migration.html">xenophobic policies</a> globally, and also the rise of the most important progressive social movements in decades, my research has taught me that in this driven-apart, socio-economic landscape, the social value of art has never been more important. </p>
<p>People are making sense of the inexplicable or the feared through art, using online platforms for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-5812.00002">public learning</a>. Art has become a point of contact, an urgent communication and a hope. </p>
<p>But some are still without shelter, without food, without community and <a href="https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/indigenous-peoples-left-behind-again-by-federal-provincial-governments-as-nation-deals-with-pandemic/">without proper health care</a>. The differences are stark.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334515/original/file-20200512-82403-1x7dtz3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334515/original/file-20200512-82403-1x7dtz3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334515/original/file-20200512-82403-1x7dtz3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334515/original/file-20200512-82403-1x7dtz3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334515/original/file-20200512-82403-1x7dtz3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334515/original/file-20200512-82403-1x7dtz3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334515/original/file-20200512-82403-1x7dtz3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Grade 12 drama class in Toronto performs their play about youth mental health and trans solidarity for their school community, December 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Kathleen Gallagher)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Moving forward</h2>
<p>Arundhati Roy has imagined this pandemic as a kind of portal we are walking through: we can “walk through it lightly … ready to <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca">imagine another world</a>.” We can choose to be “ready to fight for it.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-solidarity-during-coronavirus-and-always-its-more-than-were-all-in-this-together-135002">What is solidarity? During coronavirus and always, it's more than 'we're all in this together'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It’s time to put global youth at the centre of our responses to crises. Otherwise, young people will inherit a planet devastated by our uncoordinated efforts to act, worsening <a href="https://brill.com/view/title/39490">a crisis of intergenerational equity</a>.</p>
<p>We should of course develop a vaccine and, in Canada, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-health-care-fact-check-1.5295449">stop underfunding our public health-care system</a>. But we must also <a href="https://idpc.net/alerts/2020/04/flatten-inequality-human-rights-in-the-age-of-covid-19">flatten the steep curves we have tolerated for too long</a>. For a start, we could act on <a href="https://www.chrc-ccdp.gc.ca/eng/content/statement-inequality-amplified-covid-19-crisis">wealth disparity</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/25/covid-19-pandemic-shines-a-light-on-a-new-kind-of-class-divide-and-its-inequalities">social inequality</a>. </p>
<p>But our <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/climate-change-coronavirus-linked">response to the pandemic could also illuminate new responses</a> to fundamental problems: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/18/tip-of-the-iceberg-is-our-destruction-of-nature-responsible-for-covid-19-aoe">disrespect for the diversity of life</a> <a href="https://www.animallaw.info/article/environmental-effects-cruelty-agricultural-animals">in all its forms</a> and lack of consideration for future generations. </p>
<p>Youth expression through theatre and in social movements are valuable ways to learn how youth are experiencing, processing and communicating their understandings of the profound challenges our world faces. How powerfully our post-pandemic planning could shift if we changed who is at decision-making tables and listened to youth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138056/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathleen Gallagher receives funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada </span></em></p>Despite hardships, youth are rallying to build a new vision for the planet. The rest of us should join them.Kathleen Gallagher, Distinguished Professor, Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1328932020-04-01T13:32:34Z2020-04-01T13:32:34ZYoung people are campaigning for political change worldwide - but their voices are too often ignored<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321972/original/file-20200320-22594-10zkekb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C4500%2C2977&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-march-15-2019thousands-students-1340281487">Ink Drop/Shutterstock</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Young people have taken part in remarkable political mobilisation in the last year. They have participated in global climate change <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/21/across-the-globe-millions-join-biggest-climate-protest-ever">strikes and demonstrations</a> and protests against ruling elites, corruption and inequality in countries such as <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/algeria-breaks-wall-of-fear/">Algeria</a>, <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2019/11/27/are-global-youth-protests-learning-from-the-arab-spring/">Sudan</a>, <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2019/12/03/tunisias-police-and-demonstrators-clash-in-third-night-of-protests">Tunisia</a>, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/06/middleeast/iraq-lebanon-youth-protests-intl/index.html">Iraq and Libya</a>. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/796053">my research</a> shows that they can be excluded from decision-making and peacebuilding processes. In particular, young people frequently think that their messages are devalued or ignored.</p>
<p>Young people are often perceived as vulnerable and in need of protection. Yet they can be simultaneously viewed as dangerous, <a href="https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/expert/2012-1_Urdal_Expert-Paper.pdf">violent and uncontrollable</a>. These views have long dominated attitudes towards youth. Moreover, popular beliefs about young people’s lack of experience and political apathy has meant that many people are ignorant about their contribution to political debate. This has also led to a failure by political leaders to acknowledge young people’s potential to bring about political change.</p>
<p>A flexible understanding of what counts as “youth” means that a person can also be the subject of these attitudes for a surprisingly long time. The definition of youth revolves around <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137314536_1">age, social and cultural roles or psychological factors</a>. While the United Nations defines youth as individuals aged between <a href="https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/youth-0/index.html">15 and 24</a>, this range varies elsewhere. </p>
<p>It rises, for instance, to as high as 35 in Cyprus, according to the <a href="https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/sites/youthwiki/files/gdlcyprus.pdf">National Youth Strategy of Cyprus</a>. A 40-year-old unemployed and unmarried west African man may still be considered a “<a href="https://africanarguments.org/2013/08/12/youth-waithood-and-protest-movements-in-africa-by-alcinda-honwana/">youthman</a>”. </p>
<h2>Excluded voices</h2>
<p>During my fieldwork in Cyprus, I observed what is known as “<a href="https://www.unicef-irc.org/article/1067-youth-and-the-challenges-of-post-conflict-peacebuilding.html">adult territoriality</a>”, in which the politics is mainly dominated by older men, and they do not allow young people to take part in any type of governmental body. As one young Cypriot told me, “political parties are hesitant to encourage youth candidates in politics and they don’t have any intention to open the doors to youth either”. This prevents young people from being included in politics, decision-making or peacebuilding. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324574/original/file-20200401-66169-u6njse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324574/original/file-20200401-66169-u6njse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324574/original/file-20200401-66169-u6njse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324574/original/file-20200401-66169-u6njse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324574/original/file-20200401-66169-u6njse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324574/original/file-20200401-66169-u6njse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324574/original/file-20200401-66169-u6njse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Political division of Cyprus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/map-showing-districts-cyprus-37582726">Volina/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“It might be because of the Mediterranean culture, but elders do not listen to you until your hairs turn grey,” commented a 28-year-old Turkish Cypriot. “It is deeply embedded in the Cyprus culture that if you are a young person, you [have] no experience to be listened to,” said a 27-year-old Greek Cypriot.</p>
<p>Cyprus is not alone in this regard. Youth-led demonstrations often receive criticism, such as calls for youth climate activist Greta Thunberg to <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7757027/Jeremy-Clarkson-tells-Greta-Thunberg-shut-school-Sunrise.html">“shut up and go back to school”</a>. And sometimes, young activists are more directly sidelined: Ugandan climate activist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/29/vanessa-nakate-interview-climate-activism-cropped-photo-davos">Vanessa Nakate</a> was cropped out of a photograph by Associated Press after a press conference at the 2020 World Economic Forum at Davos. The marginalisation of youth activists of colour has also been a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/05/greta-thunberg-developing-world-activists">persistent trend</a>. </p>
<h2>Agents of change</h2>
<p>In recent years, the UN Security Council’s (UNSC) resolutions, <a href="https://www.youth4peace.info/UNSCR2250/Introduction">2250 (2015)</a> and <a href="https://www.youth4peace.info/unscr2419">2419 (2018)</a>, on “youth, peace and security” have marked an attempt to change these attitudes. They recognise the important and positive roles that young people often play. UNSC resolution 2250 identified five pillars – participation, protection, prevention, partnership and disengagement and reintegration – to enable youth participation, especially in peace processes. </p>
<p>Yet there is still work to be done to effectively incorporate youth voices. Young people <a href="https://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/blog/the-role-of-youth-in-peacebuilding-challenges-and-opportunities">have the potential</a> to positively contribute to their societies – not just for peace and security, but also for <a href="https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/18-00080_UN-Youth-Strategy_Web.pdf">sustainable development</a> – if they are recognised as political actors. </p>
<p>In the case of Cyprus, the <a href="https://undocs.org/en/S/2019/883">UN Secretary General</a> consistently called upon the Greek and Turkish Cypriot community leaders to engage women and youth in the peace processes. This could be either by strengthening the role of women’s organisations and youth participation in the peace process, or by ensuring a meaningful role for them in peace efforts. However, both Greek and Turkish Cypriot community leaders <a href="https://www.interpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/PiP_5_Cyprus-web.pdf">remain reluctant</a> to include the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15423166.2013.791536?scroll=top&needAccess=true">wider public</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319527/original/file-20200310-61070-1c0awee.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319527/original/file-20200310-61070-1c0awee.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319527/original/file-20200310-61070-1c0awee.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319527/original/file-20200310-61070-1c0awee.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319527/original/file-20200310-61070-1c0awee.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319527/original/file-20200310-61070-1c0awee.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319527/original/file-20200310-61070-1c0awee.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Peace bench on Ledras Street, Nicosia, Cyprus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most Cypriot young people are used to living in a divided country. However, some <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/14/younger-generation-cyprus-unites-to-end-divide">wish to see the division end</a> and seek to contribute meaningfully to <a href="http://leadcyprus.com/initiative/">dialogue and cooperation</a> between the two sides.</p>
<p>In my research, I sought to understand these young people’s perspectives on <a href="https://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/blog/peace-processes-an-interview-with-roger-mac-ginty">everyday peace</a>. When I asked my participants what peace means to them, most of them emphasised the need for peace at the societal level rather than a government-led solution – with a particular focus on daily practicalities. These include things like travelling to either side without any checkpoints, or using their mobile phones without extra fees.</p>
<p>Cypriot youth may not be as politically active for peace as they were in the run-up to the <a href="http://kypros.org/UN/youth.htm">2004 referendum on the Annan Plan</a>, or the period in 2011 when there was a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cyprus-movement-occupation/fed-up-with-separation-cypriot-youths-seek-change-idUSTRE7AR1L520111128">movement to occupy the buffer zone</a> between the north and south, and when young people were <a href="https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=l_f-NvTD31AC&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq=peace+demonstrations+in+cyprus,+2002&source=bl&ots=hUD1PcIa9J&sig=ACfU3U3y18ZqqbFdIzPwdjdVeai7QZfZ8Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiR8vXfm7HoAhWSsnEKHXu2BrsQ6AEwAHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=peace%20demonstrations%20in%20cyprus%2C%202002&f=false">involved in demonstrations for peace</a>. But the island’s youth still believe that they have a responsibility to find a peaceful solution to the “Cyprus problem”.</p>
<p>Although countries are hesitant to include youth in politics, <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137498700">young people find alternative ways</a> to cope with marginalisation and amplify their voices. This is apparent in the youth-led protests around the world. Young people are demanding to be leaders today, rather wait their turn in an elusive future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132893/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cihan Dizdaroğlu's project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 796053.</span></em></p>A tendency to infantilise or demonise youth has led to a failure to acknowledge young people’s potential.Cihan Dizdaroğlu, MSCA Fellow & Assistant Professor, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1323112020-03-04T11:57:25Z2020-03-04T11:57:25ZWhy colleges should think twice before punishing student protesters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318443/original/file-20200303-66060-194k09f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Student activists are calling attention to a wide range of issues on campus.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/arielle-riapos-speaks-as-a-small-group-of-student-activists-news-photo/948783778?adppopup=true">Drew Angerer/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For much of the 2019-2020 academic year, <a href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2020/03/03/not-again-su-meets-with-administrators">Syracuse University has been besieged by student protests</a> over how the school handled of a series of <a href="https://www.syracuse.com/syracuse-university/2019/11/notagainsu-a-timeline-of-racist-incidents-at-syracuse-university.html">racist incidents on campus</a>.</p>
<p>In the latest protest, Syracuse student activists have <a href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2020/02/18/not-again-su-protests-again">occupied</a> the campus administration building since Feb. 17. Using the hashtag #NotAgainSU, they are calling for action in the wake of <a href="https://twitter.com/notagain_su/status/1229502234850971649">racist, anti-Semitic and bias-related incidents</a> that allegedly occurred on campus since this past November, when they staged an earlier sit-in to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/27/nyregion/syracuse-university-racism.html">protest a spate of hate speech acts on campus</a>. </p>
<p>The school initially <a href="https://www.syracuse.com/syracuse-university/2020/02/after-warnings-syracuse-university-suspends-30-student-protesters-refusing-to-leave.html">suspended 30 students</a> involved in the latest occupation. However, <a href="https://www.syracuse.com/syracuse-university/2020/02/syracuse-chancellor-orders-protesters-suspensions-lifted-we-need-to-step-back.html">Chancellor Kent Syverud</a> lifted the suspensions two days later. The Syracuse protesters have been meeting with the administration since March 2 to negotiate a <a href="http://dailyorange.com/2020/02/notagainsu-releases-10-demands-including-exemption-absences/">series of demands</a>. Some of the demands have <a href="https://news.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Signed-Response-to-Concerns.pdf">already been met</a> since the November sit-in.</p>
<p>Among other things, those demands include hiring more faculty of color and more counselors, revising the curriculum, giving students with disabilities preference in housing, and disarming public safety officers. Protesters also want to establish new policies for reporting bias-related incidents at the <a href="https://www.syracuse.edu/about/facts-figures-rankings/">150-year-old institution</a>, which is located in central New York state and serves more than 15,000 undergraduates.</p>
<p>Whereas some may view student protests as <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/may/16/black-ucsc-student-activists-ought-to-be-expelled/">something to be squelched</a>, as an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BMfdLFYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">education researcher</a> and author of a <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/new-student-activists">book about student activists</a>, I have come to see that campus protests, like the ones at Syracuse, serve an important educational purpose.</p>
<p>Through activism, students learn not only to recognize and confront what they see as an unjust state of affairs. They also come to identify the root causes of a problem and develop solutions. The question college leaders and the broader society must ask, then, is if punishing student protesters – as what <a href="https://www.syracuse.com/syracuse-university/2020/02/after-warnings-syracuse-university-suspends-30-student-protesters-refusing-to-leave.html">initially took place</a> at Syracuse – is the right course of action.</p>
<p>The school’s officials have acknowledged they are searching for answers in this regard.</p>
<p>“We all messed this up and I’m sorry,” said <a href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2020/03/03/not-again-su-meets-with-administrators">Amanda Nicholson</a>, the assistant provost and dean of student success at Syracuse University. “What we know is our current policies on how we work with protests have failed. They don’t work. This is not a workable situation. We need to come up with something that really does work.”</p>
<h2>Thinking ahead</h2>
<p>I’ve found that student activists today are quite sophisticated when they seek to negotiate and develop strategies for change.</p>
<p>Consider an example from my new book, “<a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/new-student-activists">The New Student Activists: The Rise of Neoactivism on Campus</a>,” in which student activists sought to persuade campus administrators to replace what they saw as a culturally insensitive mascot. They figured that petitions, bookstore boycotts and other such actions would not get the administration to budge. So they crafted a compromise position to offer, once those other tactics would fail.</p>
<p>The compromise would be to require all freshman to take a course in the history and culture of the people represented by the mascot. </p>
<p>Privately, the student activists reasoned that as more students became educated on why it is problematic for people from a dominant culture to use an oppressed group’s identity as a mascot, support for changing the mascot would grow. Publicly, they would present the compromise to administrators as a relatively low-cost and responsible way to address the activists’ concerns.</p>
<p>The Syracuse protesters are pursuing similar tactics and goals. For instance, their list of demands includes creating a course on the <a href="http://dailyorange.com/2020/02/notagainsu-releases-10-demands-including-exemption-absences/">history of protests on their campus</a>.</p>
<h2>Learning beyond the classroom</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cd.310">Research</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cd.310">affirms</a> the idea that through activism, students <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2010.0001">develop critical analysis skills</a> and a deeper understanding of society and social change.</p>
<p>Student activists have called out their colleges for a variety of things – from <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/these-georgetown-students-fought-nike-and-won/">relying on overseas sweatshops</a> to produce their college apparel, to <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/california-fossil-fuels/">polluting the environment</a> to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/20/education/activists-at-colleges-network-to-fight-sexual-assault.html">doing too little</a> to investigate and punish sexual assault and harassment on campus.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.international.ucla.edu/ccs/person/1138">Robert Rhoads</a>, a scholar of higher education, <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-40688-001">found</a> that activism teaches students things they are unlikely to learn from course materials or class discussions. My own research, however, finds that activism can complement academic learning.</p>
<p>For instance, in my <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/new-student-activists">study</a> of more than 200 student activists at 120 colleges and universities across the United States, I found that most believed their activism enhanced their academic performance.</p>
<p>Although some acknowledged that activist work could feel more important or pressing than a homework assignment, the students by and large credited their activism with making them more successful academically. In some cases, it enabled them to make connections to theory or to apply course material to their everyday life. In other cases, it inspired them to work harder in classes so they would be seen as intellectually credible. Only 12.5% said activism hurt their grades or academic engagement.</p>
<h2>Looking to the future</h2>
<p>Sometimes, colleges don’t recognize the value of student activists until long after the fact. For instance, in February, the University of Mississippi – better known as Ole Miss – <a href="http://diversity.olemiss.edu/50-years-2020/">welcomed back</a> five former students who had been expelled 50 years ago for protesting a campus environment that was hostile to minority students. The events were intended to honor the sacrifice of the activists and acknowledge the harm they suffered from law enforcement and university administrators.</p>
<p>I don’t think it should take half a century for a university – and society in general – to figure out that punishing students who challenge their institutions to improve is the wrong way to go. Fortunately, Syracuse Chancellor Syverud recognized that it was wrong to expel protesters when he reversed the #NotAgainSU suspensions.</p>
<p>The deeper challenge for all universities, in my view, is to figure out how to address the conditions that give rise to protest in the first place.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jerusha Osberg Conner receives research funding from the Spencer Foundation.</span></em></p>As a student protest continues at Syracuse University, a scholar argues that student activism is a valuable part of the college experience.Jerusha Osberg Conner, Associate Professor of Education, Villanova UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1301622020-01-23T13:50:54Z2020-01-23T13:50:54ZThe dramatic dismissal of a landmark youth climate lawsuit might not close the book on that case<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311257/original/file-20200121-117927-p6lrji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=432%2C1473%2C4456%2C1649&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The legal battle these young plaintiffs are waging might not be over yet.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Youths-Sue-Climate-Change/c50712fe0fdc45ad8387870bdb77727a/5/0">AP Photo/Steve Dipaola</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A sharply divided panel of three federal judges on Jan. 17 dismissed a high-profile climate lawsuit brought on behalf of <a href="https://www.youthvgov.org/meet-the-youth">21 young people</a> against the federal government. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2020/01/17/18-36082.pdf">Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals’ ruling</a> accepted with unusual bluntness that the federal government’s climate policies may pose “clear and present danger” capable of destroying the nation, but said it’s up to the federal government and Congress, not the U.S. courts, to do something about it. </p>
<p>The three judges agreed that the young plaintiffs have <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571d109b04426270152febe0/t/5e22101b7a850a06acdff1bc/1579290663460/2020.01.17+JULIANA+OPINION.pdf">constitutional rights</a> to a stable climate system, but judges Andrew D. Hurwitz and Mary H. Murguia said that <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/1/17/21070810/climate-change-lawsuit-juliana-vs-us-our-childrens-trust-9th-circuit">courts have no role</a> in bringing that about. Likely remedies would involve changes in transportation and energy policies, along with public lands management.</p>
<p>Lawyers for the youth plaintiffs in <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571d109b04426270152febe0/t/5824e85e6a49638292ddd1c9/1478813795912/Order+MTD.Aiken.pdf">Juliana v. United States</a> said that they <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571d109b04426270152febe0/t/5e22508873d1bc4c30fad90d/1579307146820/Juliana+Press+Release+1-17-20.pdf">aren’t giving up</a>. They plan to petition the full court of 29 active <a href="https://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/content/view_seniority_list.php?pk_id=0000000035">Ninth Circuit court judges</a> to review the case. </p>
<p>As environmental law professors, <a href="http://www.aulawreview.org/no-ordinary-lawsuit-climate-change-due-process-and-the-public-trust-doctrine/">we often write</a> and teach students about this <a href="http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/lawyers-are-unleashing-a-flurry-of-lawsuits-to-step-up-the-fight-against-climate-change">groundbreaking case</a>. In our view, this case is important not only because it seeks to force the federal government to phase out fossil fuels, but also because it <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/2/22/17140166/climate-change-lawsuit-exxon-juliana-liability-kids">frames the climate crisis</a> in terms of fundamental constitutional rights. </p>
<h2>Public trust doctrine</h2>
<p>The lawsuit challenges <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/23/climate/kids-climate-lawsuit-lawyer.html">U.S. energy policies</a>, which <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571d109b04426270152febe0/t/57a35ac5ebbd1ac03847eece/1470323398409/YouthAmendedComplaintAgainstUS.pdf">the plaintiffs allege</a> have destabilized the climate system and jeopardize human life, private property and “civilization” itself.</p>
<p>The case, <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571d109b04426270152febe0/t/57a35ac5ebbd1ac03847eece/1470323398409/YouthAmendedComplaintAgainstUS.pdf">filed in 2015</a>, originally took aim at the Obama administration and now targets the Trump administration. It accuses government defendants of promoting fossil fuels for decades with “deliberate indifference to the peril they knowingly created.”</p>
<p>The young plaintiffs alleged a host of individual harms from climate disruption, including damage from fires, floods, sea level rise and ocean warming that affects fisheries. </p>
<p>The case has surmounted big hurdles before.</p>
<p>The youth won a landmark victory in 2016 in the District Court of Oregon when Judge <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571d109b04426270152febe0/t/5824e85e6a49638292ddd1c9/1478813795912/Order+MTD.Aiken.pdf">Ann Aiken ruled</a> that the plaintiffs had a constitutional right to a “climate system capable of sustaining human life,” grounded in the due process clause of the Constitution and the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2572802">public trust doctrine</a>, a principle with ancient roots requiring government to hold and protect essential resources as a sustaining endowment for citizens, in the present and the future. </p>
<p>A trial <a href="http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechange/2019/01/07/the-trial-of-the-century-a-preview-of-how-climate-science-could-play-out-in-the-courtroom-courtesy-of-juliana-v-united-states/">scheduled for Oct. 29, 2018</a>, would have marked a first. Had it gone forward, the courts would have appraised the dangers U.S. fossil fuel policies pose, based on objective climate science.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/07/09/youth-climate-case-juliana-writ-mandamus/">federal lawyers</a> <a href="https://www.latimes.com/science/la-sci-youth-climate-trial-juliana-20190603-story.html">won an early appeal</a> to the Ninth Circuit, which led first to a delay and subsequently this dismissal.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311259/original/file-20200121-117917-1m776wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311259/original/file-20200121-117917-1m776wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311259/original/file-20200121-117917-1m776wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311259/original/file-20200121-117917-1m776wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311259/original/file-20200121-117917-1m776wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311259/original/file-20200121-117917-1m776wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311259/original/file-20200121-117917-1m776wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311259/original/file-20200121-117917-1m776wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Will they ever get their day in court?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Youths-Sue-Climate-Change/a84fcbc24efb4880a47a7fb8438bfcfc/2/0">Robin Loznak/Pool Photo via AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘On the Eve of Destruction’</h2>
<p>The three judges did agree on something: The federal government’s <a href="https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-fossil-fuel-subsidies-a-closer-look-at-tax-breaks-and-societal-costs">promotion of fossil fuel use</a> is pushing the nation toward collapse. </p>
<p>Quoting the 1960s-era protest song “<a href="https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/21085340/Barry+McGuire/Eve+of+Destruction">Eve of Destruction</a>,” Judge Hurwitz, writing for himself and Judge Murguia, blamed the federal government for long knowing that fossil fuels can cause “catastrophic climate change.” He warned that the policies now in place may hasten “<a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571d109b04426270152febe0/t/5e22101b7a850a06acdff1bc/1579290663460/2020.01.17+JULIANA+OPINION.pdf">environmental apocalypse</a>” – burying cities, unleashing life-threatening disasters and jeopardizing crucial food and water sources.</p>
<p>The majority offered no hope that political leaders would respond in time. </p>
<p>Observing that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have “skyrocketed to levels not seen for almost 3 million years,” and the U.S. is expanding oil and gas extraction four times faster than that of any other nation – growth that “shows no signs of abating” – <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571d109b04426270152febe0/t/5e22101b7a850a06acdff1bc/1579290663460/2020.01.17+JULIANA+OPINION.pdf">Hurwitz wrote</a> the problem is “approaching the point of no return.”</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/01/17/797416530/kids-climate-case-reluctantly-dismissed-by-appeals-court">a forceful dissent</a>, Judge <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571d109b04426270152febe0/t/5e22101b7a850a06acdff1bc/1579290663460/2020.01.17+JULIANA+OPINION.pdf">Josephine L. Staton countered</a>:</p>
<p>“It is as if an asteroid were barreling toward Earth and the government decided to shut down our only defenses. The government bluntly insists that it has the absolute and unreviewable power to destroy the Nation. My colleagues throw up their hands.”</p>
<h2>The role of the court</h2>
<p>There was some good news for plaintiffs in the decision. The court would have found sufficient injury and causation, both needed to grant judicial review, but it was troubled with the court’s role in providing a climate remedy.</p>
<p>The majority thought that the separation of powers between the three branches of government relegates courts to the sidelines. The dissent instead viewed the separation of powers principle to call courts to the forefront. Staton saw an <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571d109b04426270152febe0/t/5e22101b7a850a06acdff1bc/1579290663460/2020.01.17+JULIANA+OPINION.pdf">implicit duty embedded in the Constitution</a> that obliges courts to prevent the other branches from bringing the nation to its demise.</p>
<p>The Founders gave an independent judiciary the responsibility of preventing the other branches from trammeling fundamental liberties of citizens. As the window of opportunity to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/global-warming-must-not-exceed-15c-warns-landmark-un-report">avert climate disaster</a> closes, checks and balances in government matter more than ever before.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://blogs2.law.columbia.edu/climate-change-litigation/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/non-us-case-documents/2020/20200113_2015-HAZA-C0900456689_judgment.pdf">Supreme Court of the Netherlands</a>, in December 2019, rejected the argument that the Juliana majority endorsed. That court found that the judicial branch may require the political branches to act, ordering a <a href="https://apnews.com/5534fe18ac5352ba43c74c9a64d6a20a">25% reduction in emissions</a> from 1990 levels by the end of 2020.</p>
<h2>Brown as a precedent</h2>
<p>The divided Juliana panel fundamentally disagreed on courts’ ability to provide a remedy. </p>
<p>The plaintiffs ask for a <a href="https://grist.org/fix/how-21-kids-could-force-a-major-turnaround-on-climate/">court-supervised federal plan</a> to shrink the nation’s carbon footprint at a rate necessary to stave off disastrous levels of climate change. They draw a parallel with ending official school segregation after the Supreme Court’s landmark <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us483">Brown v. Board of Education ruling</a> in 1954.</p>
<p>In that case, the Supreme Court found public school segregation to be unconstitutional. The justices also recognized that their decision – intended to protect the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/349/294">rights of all children to public education</a> – would require courts to supervise detailed and complex remedial action by school authorities.</p>
<p>The Juliana majority believed judicial supervision would mire the courts in protracted and complex policy issues. Had the courts invoked that logic in the 1950s, the Supreme Court might never have handed down its Brown ruling, which <a href="https://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/6-legacy/deliberate-speed.html">ordered public school desegregation</a> “with all deliberate speed.” </p>
<p>The Juliana plaintiffs had also filed an <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/2/23/18234721/childrens-climate-lawsuit-juliana-injunction">urgent motion</a> in the Ninth Circuit for an injunction to block several classes of fossil fuel projects the Trump administration was poised to deploy. An injunction could have pulled an emergency brake on U.S. <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-fossil-fuel-emissions-in-2018-increasing-at-fastest-rate-for-seven-years">fossil fuel emissions</a>, but the majority swept away the request in a footnote – with no discussion. </p>
<h2>What’s next?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/01/17/federal-appeals-court-tosses-landmark-youth-climate-lawsuit-against-us-government/">youth will ask</a> the Ninth Circuit for full review. If granted, a panel of 11 judges will have an opportunity to reverse or affirm the panel’s decision to dismiss the case. The court allows this step, known as an “<a href="http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/general/2017/02/10/En_Banc_Summary2.pdf">en banc</a>” review, in very few cases. A majority of judges on the 29-member court would have to vote to accept the case.</p>
<p>The Juliana plaintiffs may defy these slim odds. As Staton observed, the urgency and danger of the climate crisis puts this case in a “category of one.”</p>
<p>This landmark case may also receive further review because of its sweeping implications for the courts’ ability to provide redress for constitutional violations.</p>
<p>No matter what the outcome of the youths’ long-shot appeal to the full court, the losing party will likely seek review by the U.S. Supreme Court. </p>
<h2>Taking a stand</h2>
<p>While the legal destiny of this case remains uncertain, the recent majority opinion, paired with the dissent, may sharpen awareness of what is at stake.</p>
<p>Vivid descriptions of climate catastrophe in both opinions define an inescapable moment of truth for the destiny of the United States – in <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571d109b04426270152febe0/t/5e22101b7a850a06acdff1bc/1579290663460/2020.01.17+JULIANA+OPINION.pdf">Staton’s words</a>, “an existential crisis to the country’s perpetuity.” </p>
<p>Her dissent presses judges deciding climate cases to choose a side of history, asking: “When the seas envelop our coastal cities, fires and droughts haunt our interiors, and storms ravage everything between, those remaining will ask: Why did so many do so little?”</p>
<p>The 29 federal judges who sit on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will have to answer that question when they decide whether to keep this case alive.</p>
<p><em>This article draws on material <a href="https://theconversation.com/these-kids-and-young-adults-want-their-day-in-court-on-climate-change-105277">published</a> on Oct. 26, 2018.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130162/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Wood has participated in a group of more than 100 law professors signing amicus briefs in support of youth-led climate cases against government.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael C. Blumm has participated in a group of more than 100 law professors signing amicus briefs in support of youth-led climate cases against government.</span></em></p>Both opinions the three-judge panel handed down warned of a potential climate catastrophe. Only one judge said the courts have an active role to play in making the government change course.Mary Wood, Philip H. Knight Professor of Law, University of OregonMichael C. Blumm, Jeffrey Bain Scholar & Professor of Law, Lewis & Clark Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1156942019-09-15T12:20:03Z2019-09-15T12:20:03Z#Fridaysforfuture: When youth push the environmental movement towards climate justice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292291/original/file-20190912-190031-eobe9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Climate activist Greta Thunberg, centre left, joins a coalition of youth climate leaders and environmental groups during a climate strike outside the United Nations, Aug. 30, 2019, in New York. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a time of <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/">climate catastrophe</a>, after record-breaking temperatures scorched many parts of the world this summer and a devastating hurricane recently battered the Bahamas, school climate strikes are back. </p>
<p>A week of <a href="https://globalclimatestrike.net/">student-led global days of action is planned between Sept. 20 and 27</a>. Young people skipping school to protest climate inaction in <a href="https://www.fridaysforfuture.org/">#Fridaysforfuture protests</a> began last August when Greta Thunberg, now 16, sat outside the Swedish parliament for three weeks. Following her lead, young people have been walking out of school — some of them calling for “<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-strikes-greta-thunberg-calls-for-system-change-not-climate-change-heres-what-that-could-look-like-112891">system change, not climate change</a>.” </p>
<p>For those of us who have been analyzing climate activism, this is an important move toward a politicized generation that understands climate change is the greatest threat to our collective future. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1131998619329024001"}"></div></p>
<h2>Youth climate activists and academics</h2>
<p>Our activist research collaborative, the RadLab based at the University of Manitoba, is made up of both youth climate activists and academics. </p>
<p>We have worked together over the last five years to look at the learning in activism and analyze how young climate activists become politicized. We’ve studied the historic socio-cultural roots of the North American environmental movement, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/vanity-fair-the-unbearabl_b_48766">their ongoing legacy</a> and lived experiences in today’s environmental activism.</p>
<p>We have found that high-profile mainstream environmental movements in the United States and Canada tend to see themselves as virtuous while not acknowledging that <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/ca/academic/subjects/history/regional-history-after-1500/green-imperialism-colonial-expansion-tropical-island-edens-and-origins-environmentalism-16001860?format=PB&isbn=9780521565134">environmentalism grew out of racialized imperialist and colonial strategies of land expansion</a> and protection. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/conservation-refugees">conservationism has been interconnected with alienating lands from Indigenous people</a>. Indigenous communities and poor people have been removed, relocated and displaced to <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/rethinking-the-great-white-north">protect privileged leisure access to “nature,” or white settler economic interests</a>. </p>
<p>High-profile mainstream environmental movements in Canada and the U.S. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3167/ares.2018.090110">have often inadequately addressed or acknowledged this colonial and racialized history and analysis</a>. They have often ignored environmental damage in Black communities, communities of colour and Indigenous communities. Black activists and activists of colour working in their communities <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764200043004003">have called their work environmental justice</a>. Indigenous communities’ work related to environmentalism has been rooted in <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/600136/our-history-is-the-future-by-nick-estes/9781786636720/">sovereignty advocacy</a>; they have centred their relationships with lands, water and life that is “<a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/being-together-in-place">more than human</a>.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292296/original/file-20190912-190065-1r49ozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292296/original/file-20190912-190065-1r49ozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292296/original/file-20190912-190065-1r49ozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292296/original/file-20190912-190065-1r49ozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292296/original/file-20190912-190065-1r49ozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292296/original/file-20190912-190065-1r49ozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292296/original/file-20190912-190065-1r49ozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Toronto climate strike, March 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Milan Ilnyckyj/Flickr)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our research suggests climate activists involved in mainstream environmental movements are <a href="https://publisher.abc-clio.com/9781440842139/">learning from broader environmental justice and Indigenous sovereignty movements</a> and that some today are <a href="http://joecurnow.com/Curnow%20&%20Gross%202017.pdf">adopting this broader climate justice analysis</a>.</p>
<p>They also don’t believe that people in power are looking out for their best interests and they are demonstrating that young people must have a hand in shaping the future.</p>
<h2>Moving toward systemic approaches</h2>
<p>University students have been <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13549839.2015.1009825">organizing to demand that their schools divest from fossil fuel companies</a>. </p>
<p>We researched the shifts some activists involved with University of Toronto’s fossil fuel divestment group (Fossil Free UofT) experienced when they <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831218804496">moved toward more systemic approaches to addressing climate change</a>. A few of those activists became the members of the RadLab Collective through this participatory action research project. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292281/original/file-20190912-190026-15rt4un.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292281/original/file-20190912-190026-15rt4un.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292281/original/file-20190912-190026-15rt4un.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292281/original/file-20190912-190026-15rt4un.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292281/original/file-20190912-190026-15rt4un.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292281/original/file-20190912-190026-15rt4un.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292281/original/file-20190912-190026-15rt4un.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fossil Free University of Toronto activists at the March for Jobs, Justice and the Climate in July 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Andrew Kohan)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the three years since the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/university-toronto-fossil-fuels-1.3512891">University of Toronto’s president rejected divestment</a>, we have worked together to analyze the learning made possible through our environmental activism. </p>
<p>In our research process, we collected video of every meeting, rally and action that was part of the divestment campaign for two years and analyzed it. We found that the learning students experienced helped them to shift how they understood themselves so that they embraced an identity as environmentalists committed to climate justice. </p>
<p>Learning wasn’t just about ideas or new concepts in participants’ minds — it was about how they learned to participate and communicate together so that the space of planning, organizing and actions could become more equitable. </p>
<p>They began to engage in ways that reflected their emerging understanding that objectivity is a Euro-Western construct. They embraced the reality they were discovering: that knowledge could emerge through relationships and experiences. Such ideas are shared <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Black-Feminist-Thought-Knowledge-Consciousness-and-the-Politics-of-Empowerment/Hill-Collins/p/book/9780415964722">by feminist</a> and <a href="https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=413800432915271;res=IELIND">Indigenous philosophies</a>. </p>
<h2>Learning scaled up</h2>
<p>We charted how divestment activists moved from thinking of environmentalism narrowly, to thinking about it in its historic relationship to colonialism, racialization and capitalism. This thinking shifted what they believed was required of them as activists and who they felt accountable to.</p>
<p>Through research data analysis and informal conversation, group members <a href="http://www.environmentandsociety.org/perspectives/2017/4/article/taking-space-men-masculinity-and-student-climate-movement">identified the patterned practices of exclusion, which our research group analyzed</a>. In our group, Black and Indigenous group members and members of colour initially had fewer opportunities for leadership and had their ideas affirmed by anyone in the group far less frequently. As members noticed and named this, they became politicized and worked to shift the dynamics.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292282/original/file-20190912-190065-1ircq6x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292282/original/file-20190912-190065-1ircq6x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292282/original/file-20190912-190065-1ircq6x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292282/original/file-20190912-190065-1ircq6x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292282/original/file-20190912-190065-1ircq6x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292282/original/file-20190912-190065-1ircq6x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292282/original/file-20190912-190065-1ircq6x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fossil Free University of Toronto activists at the March for Jobs, Justice and the Climate in July 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Andrew Kohan)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Through the process of naming racialized and gendered patterns in the group, the politics of the group shifted. Black and Indigenous group members and members of colour shared their experiences of racialization in an informal people-of-colour caucus, and later in the equity committee they established. </p>
<p>A similar process emerged around gender in the group. As women and non-binary people shared their experiences of being left out of discussions and decision-making, they identified the pattern, and worked together to change the group’s processes. </p>
<p>From these alternative spaces, group members became politicized and amplified each other’s voices. They changed their collective practices and ways of knowing so that their analysis came to shape the group’s overall lens more and more. And these changes shifted how members identified — they came to see themselves as “radicals.” </p>
<p>The learning that happened around race and gender in the group scaled up, so that they understood anti-colonial, racial and gender justice as important at all levels of the campaign. </p>
<p>This changed some of the demands of the group, as they moved to include <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/publications/2016/10/free-prior-and-informed-consent-an-indigenous-peoples-right-and-a-good-practice-for-local-communities-fao/">Indigenous solidarity language around Free, Prior and Informed Consent</a>
<a href="http://www.uoftfacultydivest.com/files/fossil-fuel-divest.pdf">in their analysis</a>.</p>
<p>They also <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03626784.2018.1468211">examined the limitations and problems with land acknowledgements</a>, and they and advocated for other anti-colonial campaigns on campus and <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/everyday-exposure">across Canada</a>, like work in <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AamjiwnaangSarniaAgainstPipelines/">Aamjiwnaang First Nation</a> and <a href="http://unistoten.camp">Unist'ot'en</a>.</p>
<h2>Justice-centred policies</h2>
<p>Our research suggests that many of today’s young activists are less willing to accept normalized, racialized, colonial and patriarchal dynamics in their groups. This includes the <a href="http://vaipl.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ExecutiveSummary-Diverse-Green.pdf">consequences of decades of predominantly white men’s leadership</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/08/white-men-environmental-movement-leadership">in environmental NGOs</a> or their universities and in state policies. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292300/original/file-20190912-190016-14zzzho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292300/original/file-20190912-190016-14zzzho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292300/original/file-20190912-190016-14zzzho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292300/original/file-20190912-190016-14zzzho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292300/original/file-20190912-190016-14zzzho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292300/original/file-20190912-190016-14zzzho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292300/original/file-20190912-190016-14zzzho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Toronto climate strike, March 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Milan Ilnyckyj/Flickr)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our research team is continuing to analyze data that will help us understand how environmentalists learn about solidarity and justice, grounded in an awareness of the contradictions and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2018.1468211">limitations of solidarity</a>.</p>
<p>We want to learn in order to support people willing and able to fight for justice-centred policies that will stop the worst of the climate crisis for all communities. </p>
<p><em>Sinéad Dunphy co-wrote this article as part of the RadLab, an ongoing activist research collaborative based at the University of Manitoba.</em></p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115694/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joe Curnow received funding from the Vanier CGS for this research. </span></em></p>A research team of youth climate activists and academics is examining how environmentalists learn about solidarity and justice.Joe Curnow, Assistant Professor of Education, University of ManitobaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1125022019-03-08T11:42:25Z2019-03-08T11:42:25Z3 ways activist kids these days resemble their predecessors<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262758/original/file-20190307-82684-1a0ps8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Yolanda Renee King, the grandchild of Martin Luther King Jr., alongside Jaclyn Corin, a Parkland survivor and activist</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Student-Gun-Protests/9dc51ee8e578446c978cb9fdba55f217/35/0">AP Photo/Andrew Harnik</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A gaggle of young activists recently paid Dianne Feinstein a visit at the senator’s San Francisco office, imploring her to support the <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/431238-kids-confront-feinstein-over-green-new-deal">Green New Deal</a> framework for confronting climate change. She responded by explaining the complicated legislative process, emphasizing her decades of experience and promising to pursue a considerably more modest approach to confronting climate change with a better shot at passage in the Senate.</p>
<p>The lawmaker tried to come across as sympathetic, yet sounded condescending in a short video clip that <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/22/politics/feinstein-video-sunrise-movement-kids/index.html">quickly went viral</a>, eliciting a <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/22/dianne-feinstein-criticized-arguing-kids-over-green-new-deal/2956607002/">stream of criticism</a>. A <a href="https://youtu.be/cd3H1boPIIE">longer version</a> told a more nuanced story, including why she believes her own “<a href="https://www.eenews.net/assets/2019/02/26/document_pm_01.pdf">responsible resolution</a>” has a better chance of passage.</p>
<p>It’s easy to understand why Feinstein’s confrontation went viral. Saying “no” to earnest children who see their futures in jeopardy makes politicians look callous. </p>
<p>Although the advent of social media has made it easier for millions to witness these awkward encounters, there is nothing new about kids engaging in grassroots activism. And based on <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EzRzZwgAAAAJ&hl=en">my research about social movements</a>, I find that today’s young activists have a lot in common with the leaders of earlier youth movements.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eIebWywFfNw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This clip of Sen. Dianne Feinstein arguing with a group of students about climate policy went viral.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Young people often appear at the front lines of social change for three main reasons.</p>
<h2>1. Passionate about causes</h2>
<p>First, young people may refuse to ignore injustices or wait patiently when they feel <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/soc4.12465">passionately about a cause</a>. That means they’re <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0891241606293608">more apt to take risks</a>.</p>
<p>During the civil rights era, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed and seven other children known as the “<a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/central-high-school-integration">Little Rock Nine</a>” followed federal troops past jeering crowds of white teens to integrate Central High School in Arkansas in 1957. </p>
<p>More than 60 years later, the dean of students at a public high school less than an hour from Little Rock <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/03/19/students-paddled-public-school-staff-after-participating-walkout-arkansas/439141002/">paddled three high school students</a> for walking out of school to protest gun violence. </p>
<p>In both instances, young activists took risks that would scare off most adults.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262792/original/file-20190307-82684-12zx1z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262792/original/file-20190307-82684-12zx1z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262792/original/file-20190307-82684-12zx1z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262792/original/file-20190307-82684-12zx1z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262792/original/file-20190307-82684-12zx1z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262792/original/file-20190307-82684-12zx1z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262792/original/file-20190307-82684-12zx1z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262792/original/file-20190307-82684-12zx1z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The nine African-American students who entered segregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 were escorted by troops.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-Arkansas-United-/7ce4d39339e5da11af9f0014c2589dfb/2/1">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Dramatic images</h2>
<p>Second, politically engaged young people can create dramatic and appealing images to dramatize their cause. That’s what happened when <a href="https://www.biography.com/news/black-history-birmingham-childrens-crusade-1963-video">Martin Luther King Jr.</a> put schoolchildren at the front of a march for civil rights through Birmingham, Alabama. He surely knew they were likely to face <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/birmingham-campaign">police willing to use firehoses</a> and dogs to disperse the crowds.</p>
<p>The visuals horrified the nation and inspired more action not only in the streets but in Congress – which passed the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act">Civil Rights Act of 1964</a> soon after that showdown.</p>
<p>Similarly, Jefferson County, Colorado high school students <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2014/09/24/hundreds-of-jeffco-students-walk-out-in-largest-school-board-protest/">walked out of school</a> in 2014 to campaign against their new school board’s promise to stop offering an advanced placement course in American history because these officials said its curriculum undermined patriotism. Some of the students must have read ahead in the text, for they carried placards with slogans like “<a href="https://denver.cbslocal.com/2014/09/23/jeffco-students-plan-to-protest-history-proposal/">There is nothing more patriotic than protest</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262812/original/file-20190307-82661-zuenk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262812/original/file-20190307-82661-zuenk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262812/original/file-20190307-82661-zuenk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262812/original/file-20190307-82661-zuenk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262812/original/file-20190307-82661-zuenk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262812/original/file-20190307-82661-zuenk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262812/original/file-20190307-82661-zuenk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262812/original/file-20190307-82661-zuenk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students walked out of school when the Jefferson County School Board in Colorado sought to change the AP US history curriculum in 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Student-Protest-US-History/dcd29b434b7a44c9bec8025612682718/50/0">AP Photo/Brennan Linsley</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Dilemmas for authorities</h2>
<p>Third, dismissing or attacking young activists who appear earnest and sincere can prove perilous.</p>
<p>When Birmingham’s children’s march was met with police violence, national attention forced civil rights to the top of the White House’s agenda. It also cost <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/eugene-bull-connor-21402055">Bull Connor</a>, Birmingham’s public safety commissioner, his job.</p>
<p>Before Feinstein’s awkward encounter went viral, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/laura-ingraham-david-hogg-colleges-ucla-uc-santa-barbara-twitter-parkland-864992">Fox News host Laura Ingraham</a> experienced a similar snafu when she ridiculed gun-control activist <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2018/03/27/parkland-leader-david-hogg-rejected-colleges-emma-gonzalez/">David Hogg</a>. The pundit teased the Parkland shooting survivor after he didn’t get into any of the four California universities at the top of his list, a move widely perceived as bullying.</p>
<p>Hogg’s youth made it tough for Ingraham to attack him. His political savvy made it even tougher when he tweeted the names of Ingraham’s sponsors, and suggested his supporters boycott her show. Ingraham <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/laura-ingraham-apologizes-upset-hurt-caused-comments-parkland/story?id=54102676">eventually apologized</a>, but only after losing some sponsors.</p>
<p>Hogg won this political standoff and even more. He <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/12/22/parkland-survivor-david-hogg-harvard-mocked-fox-host/2396762002/">will enroll at Harvard University</a> in the fall of 2019 – along with Jaclyn Corin, a fellow Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School graduate and <a href="https://marchforourlives.com/mission-statement">March for Our Lives</a> co-founder. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1076466561630785537"}"></div></p>
<h2>Sunrise movement</h2>
<p>The young activists who caught Feinstein off-guard, and another group that got arrested for trying to discuss climate policy with <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/431430-dozens-of-climate-protesters-storm-mcconnells-office-over-green">Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell</a>, belong to the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/dianne-feinstein-video-climate-change-sunrise-movement/583501/">Sunrise Movement</a>. The relatively new group describes itself as an “army of young people.” </p>
<p>Like other youngsters before them, its members claim to have greater stake in forceful environmental action than their elders. Unlike many of the adults who call the shots on policy, they expect to be around to face the consequences should their leaders keep failing to take <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-next-two-years-are-critical-for-the-paris-climate-deals-survival-107931">forceful action on climate change</a>. </p>
<p>American kids and young adults are making these claims not only in the halls of Congress but also in court. More than 20 young people are plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit, <a href="https://theconversation.com/these-kids-and-young-adults-want-their-day-in-court-on-climate-change-105277">Juliana v. U.S.</a>, that aims to force the government to slash the emissions that cause climate change.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262250/original/file-20190305-48450-1uflb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262250/original/file-20190305-48450-1uflb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262250/original/file-20190305-48450-1uflb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262250/original/file-20190305-48450-1uflb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262250/original/file-20190305-48450-1uflb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262250/original/file-20190305-48450-1uflb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262250/original/file-20190305-48450-1uflb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262250/original/file-20190305-48450-1uflb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/anderspangpang/status/1102990877306355725">Effekt/Anders Hellberg</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Young people around the world, led by Swedish teen <a href="https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg">Greta Thunberg</a>, are also organizing “climate strikes,” where young people will skip school to discuss the urgency of doing more about climate change and protest how little progress the authorities have made.</p>
<p>On March 15, tens of thousands of U.S. children plan to take part in a global action by <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/2/21/18233206/greta-thunberg-student-school-strike-climate-change">walking out of schools</a>. Large numbers of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davekeating/2019/02/07/in-belgium-students-are-striking-for-the-climate-and-theyve-forced-a-minister-to-resign/#61c7afb43fc7">European students are already staging similar events</a>.</p>
<p>Some critics are arguing that these young activists are serving as pawns of manipulative adults who are eager to use fresh faces to tout their own cause. The writer <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/dianne-feinstein-video-climate-change-sunrise-movement/583501/">Caitlin Flanagan</a> dismissed them as “jackbooted tots and aggrieved teenagers” and Feinstein referred to “<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/feinstein-green-new-deal-activists-799240/">whoever sent you here</a>” during her brush with the Sunrise Movement.</p>
<p>But as sociologist Rebecca Klatch has found, teen activists have historically tended to echo their parents’ views authentically, just with <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520217140/a-generation-divided">more energy and enthusiasm</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112502/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David S. Meyer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>These youngsters have ample fervor, and they are dramatically photogenic. Dismissing them as being fake or lightweight can spell trouble for members of the establishment.David S. Meyer, Professor of Sociology, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1115942019-02-18T15:14:22Z2019-02-18T15:14:22ZSchool climate strikes: what next for the latest generation of activists?<p>School students across the UK (and the world) <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/15/uk-climate-change-strike-school-pupils-children-environment-protest">went on strike</a> on February 15, leaving their lessons to protest the lack of effective action on climate change. Coordinated school strikes may be a novel tactic, but mass environmental activism isn’t. So will things be any more successful this time around?</p>
<p>The first big global wave of ecological concern began in the late 1960s and involved fears of overpopulation, air and water pollution and the extinction of species. It peaked with the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, which kicked off international environmental politics.</p>
<p>The next mass movement began in the late 1980s with concerns over the ozone hole, Amazonian deforestation and newly-voiced fears of climate change – then known as the “greenhouse effect”. That wave peaked with the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, which sought to tackle both global warming and biodiversity, and marked the beginning of coordinated climate action through the UN. That conference was addressed by a passionate and articulate young woman representing “ECO” – the Environmental Children’s Organization:</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oJJGuIZVfLM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">12-year-old Severn Cullis-Suzuki addresses the 1992 Rio Summit.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From about 2006 to 2010 there was another, climate specific wave, beginning with Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth documentary, and groups like Climate Camp in the UK. It climaxed (or fizzled out) with the 2009 UN climate summit in Copenhagen. This wave saw the creation of various “Youth Climate Coalition” organisations in Australia and the UK.</p>
<p>In academic terminology these periods of concern and relative indifference are known as the “<a href="https://www.nationalaffairs.com/public_interest/detail/up-and-down-with-ecologythe-issue-attention-cycle">Issue Attention Cycles</a>”.</p>
<h2>A new wave of activism</h2>
<p>This latest wave of climate action emerged in 2018, in the shape of Extinction Rebellion and its French cousin (or inverse) the <a href="http://blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/europe-stream/2018/12/gilets-jaunes-extinction-rebellion-and-neoliberal-climate-policy/">gilets jaunes</a>. Earlier in the year, Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg had begun her <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQbz6u1CyABskXzDhav3vxw">solo “school strike”</a> in Stockholm while, more or less simultaneously, activists in America launched the <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-zero-hour-youth-climate-march-a-turning-point-or-more-of-the-same-100173">“Zero Hour” youth climate march</a>.</p>
<p>Alongside this activism, the IPCC released its report on what it would take to keep <a href="https://theconversation.com/ipcc-1-5-report-heres-what-the-climate-science-says-104592">global warming below 1.5°C</a>, and Mother Nature lent a hand with blistering hot summers in the UK, California and (more recently) Australia. </p>
<p>Previous bursts of environmental activism occurred before climate breakdown had been quite so obvious and severe. This time round, the heatwaves, hurricanes and floods will keep coming, perhaps making the latest wave of enthusiasm last longer.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259561/original/file-20190218-56229-1gmqd30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259561/original/file-20190218-56229-1gmqd30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259561/original/file-20190218-56229-1gmqd30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259561/original/file-20190218-56229-1gmqd30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259561/original/file-20190218-56229-1gmqd30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259561/original/file-20190218-56229-1gmqd30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259561/original/file-20190218-56229-1gmqd30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259561/original/file-20190218-56229-1gmqd30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The summer 2018 heatwave helped inspire more radical action on climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Savo Ilic / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Maintaining momentum</h2>
<p>But what goes up must come down, and the students will find that it is very hard indeed to sustain emotional and physical mobilisation for a prolonged period. Right now, this issue is roughly where the Parkland shooting protests were last year – newsworthy for now, but the media caravan will inevitably move on. </p>
<p>That has consequences: when protests and actions stop getting the same amount of attention, and it seems that momentum is stalling, internal disagreements as to what is the best way forward, beyond a cycle of marches and symbolic strikes, will emerge, and will need to be managed skilfully. Some will want to work “within the system” and get invited onto advisory panels and into consultative processes. Others will have to get on with real life (university, paying the rent, working on, ah, zero-hour contracts).</p>
<p>On one front, the young are lucky – their age means it is hard to see any direct infiltration and “<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2011.00394.x">strategic incapacitation</a>” by undercover police. But the flip side is that social media offers virtually limitless surveillance possibilities.</p>
<p>One possibility is an attempt to discredit and demoralise those who seem vulnerable. Elements of special interests like the oil and gas industry often try to “pick off” individual scientists or activists rather than take on a whole field – climate scientist Michael Mann has dubbed this the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0096340214563674">Serengeti Strategy</a> as it resembles lions hunting the weakest zebras. We are already seeing this strategy in the latest wave of climate activism: recently Greta Thunberg had to address some <a href="https://manchesterclimatemonthly.net/2019/02/02/greta-thunbergs-facebook-post-for-those-who-dont-do-fb-fridaysforthefuture-manchester/">rumours being circulated about her</a>.</p>
<p>Youth activists also face the problem that they may annoy their parents and grandparents. Yet before offering advice to the young, we older people have to ask ourselves, why should they <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-climate-strikes-why-adults-no-longer-have-the-right-to-object-to-their-children-taking-radical-action-111851">listen to us</a>? We’ve known about the problem and either been ineffective or done nothing. It is children who are owed an enormous apology and expression of humility.</p>
<p>So for the latest generation of climate campaigners, my top four pieces of advice (see here for a <a href="https://marchudson.net/2018/11/19/dear-new-climate-activist-unsolicited-advice-oldfartclimateadvice/">longer list</a>), based on both my activism and my time in academia, are as follows:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Be aware of emotions. People won’t be persuaded just by being given more information on global temperatures or carbon budgets – <a href="https://manchesterclimatemonthly.net/interviews/interview-with-rosemary-randall-on-psycho-analysis-and-climate-change/">psychological skills</a> will matter too.</p></li>
<li><p>Your parents are probably wrestling with fear (aren’t we all?) and guilt for not having sorted this out before you had to. Fear and guilt make can make people oscillate from action to inaction, pessimism to optimism.</p></li>
<li><p>Traditional “social movement” activities (marches, petitions, protests, camps) have a short shelf-life. The media gets bored and stops reporting. Meanwhile, those in power learn how to cope with the pressure. Be very careful about getting drawn into the Big Marches In London syndrome. You’re going to need to innovate, repeatedly.</p></li>
<li><p>Even though time is short, this is still a marathon, not a sprint.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>But what would you say? How should we older people offer advice, when, who to, and about what? Suggestions in the comments please.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111594/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc Hudson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Four pieces of advice for young people wanting to fight climate change.Marc Hudson, PhD Candidate, Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1110032019-02-18T14:20:47Z2019-02-18T14:20:47ZAfrica’s student movements: history sheds light on modern activism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259279/original/file-20190215-56243-e5ssa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">African students at the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1964 protesting against being called "savages" in parliament.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rhodesian Herald</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On 9 March 2015, a student hurled faeces at a statue of British colonialist Cecil Rhodes. This act led to <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2015-04-09-rhodes-statue-to-be-removed-after-uct-council-decision">the statue’s removal</a>. It also inspired <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-african-students-are-protesting-again-why-it-neednt-be-this-way-109964">the most significant period of student protest</a> in post-apartheid South Africa’s history. </p>
<p>Student protesters called for the decolonisation of universities and public life. They spurred similar actions by student activists in <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-37430324">the Global North</a>. Students in other African countries like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/14/racist-gandhi-statue-removed-from-university-of-ghana">Ghana</a> and <a href="https://africanarguments.org/2016/08/01/decolonising-makerere-on-mamdanis-failed-experiment/">Uganda</a> also got involved. But the debate about what the decolonisation agenda means and who has the authority to lead it is still wide open – and often acrimonious. </p>
<p>The lessons from older, non-South African experiences of student protests in post-colonial African politics are often missing from those debates. </p>
<p>After independence, generations of university students in countries like Uganda, Kenya, Angola and Zimbabwe mobilised for change. They wanted politics and education to be decolonised, transformed and Africanised. These cases, and others, are explored in <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/issue/450ED9F309972E6B034AEB155590EA9A">a special edition</a> of the journal <em>Africa</em>.</p>
<p>Today’s student activism and that which came before it share two common traits. One is student protestors’ belief in their own political agency. The other is the fear state authorities have that these groups may, in the words of Ugandan scholar Mahmood Mamdani, act as a “<a href="https://idl-bnc-idrc.dspacedirect.org/handle/10625/13489">catalytic force</a>”. They have the power to spur other groups into action.</p>
<p>By looking back, scholars can understand the potential that such activism has for emancipating people from the legacies of colonialism. It’s also a useful way to identify the limits that student decolonisation projects can hold for both broader politics and society, as well as for the activists themselves. </p>
<h2>Looking back</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/introduction-student-activism-in-an-era-of-decolonization/05CE1FD0D1C81EC17EA829DBC5F3095E">our introduction</a> to the journal, we point out that African students in the 1960s and 1970s believed themselves to be emergent political elites and intellectuals. </p>
<p>They questioned political leaders’ assumed role as the agents of decolonisation. They agitated for radical alternative projects of political change. These projects commonly incorporated socialist or pan-African ideological frameworks.</p>
<p>African universities were key actors in developing post-colonial and decolonised societies. They trained an entire new class of doctors, economists, lawyers, and other professionals. </p>
<p>This was happening in countries with low levels of formal schooling. And so, university students’ education was seen to give them the knowledge and skills to both understand and challenge state authority in a way that few other social groups could. These challenges led to frequent clashes between university students and the states that funded their education.</p>
<h2>Historical protests</h2>
<p>There was no single decolonisation project during this era. Students’ challenges to state authority looked very different in different countries. The <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/shama-will-not-dance-university-of-khartoum-politics-196469/B00518BA4D475318B38013962A77FC92">fatal contests</a> between radical Islamist and secular Leftist students at the University of Khartoum in Sudan in the late 1960s offer one example. </p>
<p>These two factions debated and violently fought over whether a decolonised Sudan should be secular and socialist, or bound by Islamic customs and values. Women’s public performances of their femininity became a lightning rod for these tensions. This boiled over into tragedy after <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/shama-will-not-dance-university-of-khartoum-politics-196469/B00518BA4D475318B38013962A77FC92">the <em>Adjako</em> women’s dance</a> was controversially performed in front of a campus crowd of men and women. The Islamic movement denounced this. Riots ensued, and a student was trampled to death. </p>
<p>Another <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/political-life-of-the-dead-lumumba-cold-war-histories-and-the-congolese-student-left/5CAB511BE7B085E0E9D138D93B350BB8#fndtn-metrics">example</a> was how the 1961 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jan/17/patrice-lumumba-50th-anniversary-assassination">assassination</a> of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba influenced students in the Democratic Republic of Congo. His death pushed young educated Congolese to revisit the meaning of decolonisation. They turned ideologically to the Left. This shaped the ideas and practices of a generation who challenged President Mobutu Sese Seko’s authoritarian rule.</p>
<h2>New understandings</h2>
<p>Scholars of African student activism have typically devoted more time to analysing earlier historical periods. These include the early anti-colonial activism of nationalist leaders such as Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta in <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=7d3qBgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=mark+matera+london+africa&ots=CY_XVWWIzX&sig=xvPJHSwbxuRR6P9-xurnpD9C4u8#v=onepage&q=mark%20matera%20london%20africa&f=false">London</a>, or Senegal’s Leopold Senghor in <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=LNMmCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=goebel+paris+book+anti-colonial&ots=AeCaUKHRip&sig=kjvg-lUyWyYPaPyCTBrA_cDVZHU#v=onepage&q=goebel%20paris%20book%20anti-colonial&f=false">Paris</a>. </p>
<p>By focusing on the 1960s and 1970s, the research that appears in the special edition opens up new ways of thinking about the significance of African student activism. Some students took their political ideas and behaviour into subsequent careers as opposition political leaders in Kenya, Niger and Uganda. In Zimbabwe and Angola, on the other hand, student activism opened the way into high-status careers as state leaders. These former protesters’ uncomfortable association with authoritarian governance forced them to defend the meaning of their past activism. </p>
<p>The articles show how decolonisation in this period shaped a generation of university students’ aspirations to challenge post-colonial forms of governance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111003/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>African universities were key actors in developing post-colonial and decolonised societies.Dan Hodgkinson, Departmental Lecturer in African History and Politics, University of OxfordLuke Melchiorre, Assistant Professor, Political Science, Universidad de los Andes Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1104092019-01-24T11:09:54Z2019-01-24T11:09:54ZGreta Thunberg at Davos: why Gen Z has real power to influence business on climate change<p>The time for action is now – this is the mantra being taken up by Generation Z across the world. Already this year, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-6606517/Students-Germany-Switzerland-protest-climate-change.html">thousands of high school students</a> <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/brussels-climate-protest-global-warming-children-school-belgium-a8732726.html">across</a> the <a href="https://www.thelocal.ch/20190118/thousands-of-students-protest-against-climate-inaction">world</a> have skipped school to protest their governments’ inaction on climate change. The students were inspired by 16-year-old Swede <a href="https://twitter.com/gretathunberg?lang=en">Greta Thunberg</a>, who started the movement by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/sep/01/swedish-15-year-old-cutting-class-to-fight-the-climate-crisis">skipping school</a> every Friday since August 2018. This is only the beginning: further demonstrations are already scheduled for the coming weeks.</p>
<p>Gen Z has the most to lose from the negative effects of climate change, and Thunberg made a compelling <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzeekxtyFOY">call to action</a> at the recent <a href="https://cop24.gov.pl/">COP24</a> conference in Katowice, Poland: “You say you love your children above all else – and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes,” she told global leaders during the climate summit. “Until you start focusing on what needs to be done rather than what is politically possible, there is no hope. We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis,” she added. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1073527918616297472"}"></div></p>
<p>Despite the urgency in Greta’s speech and calls for <a href="https://theconversation.com/cop24-climate-protesters-must-get-radical-and-challenge-economic-growth-107768">climate protesters to get more radical</a>, the outcomes of COP24 <a href="https://www.dazeddigital.com/politics/article/42953/1/over-10000-students-skip-school-in-belgium-to-protest-climate-change">left much to be desired</a>, in terms of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/16/the-guardian-view-on-cop24-while-climate-talks-continue-there-is-hope">actionable steps to cut emissions</a>. It remains to be seen whether Greta’s call to action will take root and drive meaningful change. But our intuition is that, armed with social media and growing economic clout, Gen Z is best positioned to influence business practices, rather than global climate agreements, where <a href="https://theconversation.com/cop24-what-to-expect-107862">political gridlock</a> appears to be the status quo.</p>
<h2>A proud history of activism</h2>
<p>A look back at recent social and environmental movements proves that youth activism <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-zero-hour-youth-climate-march-a-turning-point-or-more-of-the-same-100173">can shape the current debate</a> around climate change. Approaching the 60th anniversary of the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/courage-at-the-greensboro-lunch-counter-4507661/">Greensboro sit-ins</a> – where students flouted segregation by occupying seats at diners – it’s timely to recall the instrumental role young people played throughout the American civil rights movement’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/02/20/children-have-changed-america-before-braving-fire-hoses-and-police-dogs-for-civil-rights/?utm_term=.649f2de9385b">most critical moments</a>. <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/march-on-washington">Their actions</a> helped to desegregate schools, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/sit-in-movement">challenge racism</a> and advance voter and civil rights legislation. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255372/original/file-20190124-135142-1720hek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255372/original/file-20190124-135142-1720hek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255372/original/file-20190124-135142-1720hek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255372/original/file-20190124-135142-1720hek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255372/original/file-20190124-135142-1720hek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255372/original/file-20190124-135142-1720hek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255372/original/file-20190124-135142-1720hek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Civil rights protesters at a sit-in, North Carolina, 1960.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Civil_Rights_protesters_and_Woolworth%27s_Sit-In%2C_Durham%2C_NC%2C_10_February_1960._From_the_N%26O_Negative_Collection%2C_State_Archives_of_North_Carolina%2C_Raleigh%2C_NC._Photos_taken_by_The_News_%26_%2824495308926%29.jpg">State Archives of North Carolina/Wikimedia Commons.</a></span>
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<p>Other notable youth movements over the past 50 years have included the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-protests">Vietnam War protests</a>, <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/china-1989-tiananmen-square-protests-demonstration-massacre">Tiananmen Square</a> and the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/middleeast/18youth.html">Arab Spring</a>. While each of these movements is unique to its time and place in history, they share a common element: a clear authority to protest against.</p>
<p>Arguably, young climate activists today face an even tougher challenge than their historical predecessors. Getting political action on climate change is a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11077-012-9151-0">seemingly impossible task</a>, and youth movements over the past 30 years have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-zero-hour-youth-climate-march-a-turning-point-or-more-of-the-same-100173">unable to influence global policy</a> in any meaningful way. This is largely because no single government or organisation has the necessary authority to create the kind of change needed to address climate change on a global scale. </p>
<h2>A powerful appeal</h2>
<p>While Greta’s message may have fallen on deaf ears at COP24, her <a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/2019/01/17/climate-change-high-agenda-davos-summit-despite-privileged-access-fossil-fuel-industry">appeal to global business leaders</a> at the annual <a href="https://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting">World Economic Forum</a> in Davos, Switzerland, holds more promise. As scholars in social innovation, we are interested in understanding how youth activism can transform the business sector, by aligning sustainable business models with a meaningful purpose and positive impact on the environment. </p>
<p>Companies are already looking for ways to <a href="https://theconversation.com/hitching-a-ride-on-social-or-political-movements-can-help-firms-profit-and-change-for-the-better-105159">hitch a ride on social and political movements</a> and tap into <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jiawertz/2018/10/28/how-to-win-over-generation-z-who-hold-44-billion-of-buying-power/#69be247b4c13">Gen Z’s purchasing power</a>, reportedly worth US$44 billion globally. And a number of recent campaigns by young activists have already succeeded in making corporations change their ways. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/07/18/anti-straw-movement-based-unverified-statistic-500-million-day/750563002/">anti-straw movement</a>, started by nine-year-old Milo Cress in 2011, illustrates how social media can change behaviour at multinational companies such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/15/mcdonalds-to-switch-to-paper-straws-in-uk-after-customer-concern">McDonalds</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jul/23/starbucks-straws-ban-2020-environment">Starbucks</a>. Likewise, the Facebook page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kidscutpalmoil/">Kids Cut Conflict Palm Oil</a> has – with the help of Australian NGO <a href="http://wildlifeasia.org.au/">Wildlife Asia</a> – successfully lobbied PepsiCo <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/pepsi-cuts-off-indonesian-palm-oil-supplier-over-labor-sustainability-concerns/">to cut ties</a> with an Indonesian palm oil supplier over deforestation and labour concerns.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255380/original/file-20190124-135151-fb8atf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255380/original/file-20190124-135151-fb8atf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255380/original/file-20190124-135151-fb8atf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255380/original/file-20190124-135151-fb8atf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255380/original/file-20190124-135151-fb8atf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255380/original/file-20190124-135151-fb8atf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255380/original/file-20190124-135151-fb8atf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Students take a stand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tallahassee-florida-united-states-february-21-1030448821?src=cmvlOXrHA6fdQWbboVnI8Q-1-1">KMH Photovideo/Shutterstock.</a></span>
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<p>Recent initiatives to end gun violence in the US have also seen youth activists play a major role. Following the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/14/us/parkland-school-shooting.html">shooting that killed 17 people</a> at a school in Parkland, Florida, students began social media campaigns <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/companies-cutting-ties-nra-grows-include-hertz-metlife/story?id=53322436">targeting major companies</a> with ties to the National Rifle Association, forcing them to end those relationships. Dick’s Sporting Goods, a major gun retailer, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/28/major-gun-retailer-dicks-will-stop-selling-assault-style-rifles-nyt.html">pulled assault-style rifles from its stores</a> in response. </p>
<p>Companies also want to understand how digital natives use social media to interact with their products and services. From <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/27/gen-z-expert-jonah-stillman-is-consulting-for-intuit-linkedin-and-nfl.html">hiring Gen Z advisors</a> to guide digital marketing efforts, to putting <a href="https://qz.com/389387/companies-need-more-millennial-board-members-if-they-want-to-stay-relevant/">Millennials and Gen Z on their board of directors</a>, companies are racing to connect with young people. </p>
<p>Understanding that Gen Z are <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/305021">motivated by social causes</a>, companies are making efforts to genuinely engage with this demographic on social media. For example, <a href="https://boxedwaterisbetter.com/">Boxed Water</a> has pledged to plant two trees for every picture of their product shared with #betterplanet, and has planted nearly 800,000 trees to date.</p>
<p>The international community <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/">has been warned</a> that there is only a 12 year window to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5C – the limit to prevent “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-45792362/climate-change-how-15c-degrees-of-global-warming-could-change-the-world">climate catastrophe</a>”. By that time, Greta Thunberg will be just 28 years old – so it’s no wonder that today’s youth are determined to keep up the pressure. </p>
<p>Tackling climate change is going to need buy-in from corporations, governments and civil society. If today’s young activists can speed up this process, all power to them. After all, as <a href="https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/01/22/borrow-earth/">the old proverb</a> goes, we don’t inherit the world from our parents – we borrow it from our children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110409/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Gen Z is best positioned to influence business practices, rather than global climate agreements, where political gridlock appears to be the status quo.Vanina Farber, elea Professor for Social Innovation, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)Patrick Reichert, elea Research Fellow in Social Innovation, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1001732018-07-20T04:38:01Z2018-07-20T04:38:01ZIs the ‘Zero Hour’ youth climate march a turning point, or more of the same?<p>This weekend, young climate activists will march through Washington DC’s National Mall. The rally, part of the <a href="http://thisiszerohour.org/">Zero Hour</a> movement, is another sign of the concern and dismay felt by young people after 30-plus years of prevarication and hesitation by their elders. </p>
<p>Just as young Americans are realising that their schools won’t be made safe by the “thoughts and prayers” of the usual politicians, nor will their climate be safe if they leave matters to people who have spent decades failing to slow the acceleration of the climate problem.</p>
<p>But what new methods are they bringing to the table to boost climate action? And are children really a source of hope for an issue on which adults have hitherto failed?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-engage-youth-in-making-policies-that-work-for-us-all-39319">How to engage youth in making policies that work for us all</a>
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<h2>Children and youth as redeemers</h2>
<p>Climate change is such a fiendish problem (or technically, a “<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11077-012-9151-0">super wicked problem</a>”) that many people have been left casting about for magic solutions. Perhaps a market mechanism will “send the right signal” to investors, or a new technology will prevent carbon dioxide from reaching the atmosphere or, indeed, <a href="https://theconversation.com/cant-we-just-remove-carbon-dioxide-from-the-air-to-fix-climate-change-not-yet-45621">suck it out</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cant-we-just-remove-carbon-dioxide-from-the-air-to-fix-climate-change-not-yet-45621">Can't we just remove carbon dioxide from the air to fix climate change? Not yet</a>
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<p>Another pervasive strand of thought is that the children will save us – not just because they stand to become the innocent victims of climate change, but also because they have a truer insight, having lived with the climate problem throughout their lives rather than having to change their mindset to appreciate our deepening plight. </p>
<p>This reasoning might sound comforting, but we should guard against it. First, because as the Zero Hour campaigners rightly point out, we don’t have time – the decisions made now, by adults, are the ones that will determine what energy and transport infrastructure is built, and what adaptation measures are taken. In 30 years, when today’s children become the decision-makers, it will be too late. </p>
<p>Second, because childhood innocence is a myth – or as academics like to say, a “social construct”. As the sociologist Diane Rodgers has <a href="http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2018/05/22/myth-childhood-innocence-undermines-teenage-activism/ideas/essay/">pointed out</a>:</p>
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<p>The very idea that childhood is a protected space is a recent one, historically. In his classic 1960 book Centuries of Childhood, historian Philippe Ariès analyzed medieval depictions of childhood in art and literature, to show that children of that time period were treated as “little adults,” without a separate culture of social life and play.</p>
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<p>Rodgers points to the 18th-century Swiss philosopher <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Jacques-Rousseau">Jean-Jacques Rousseau</a> as the originator of the idea that children are innately innocent and closely connected to nature. She argues that “the Romantic period built on this myth of innocence by imagining ‘childhood as state of paradise’ as represented in literature by poets like Wordsworth”.</p>
<p>It’s this myth of childhood innocence that gives films like Damian, Children of the Corn and Halloween their bite, and in the 1980s saw children seeking to <a href="https://www.apnews.com/353b37c0c5e3005fe36087a10ab22b72">meet with world leaders to end the Cold War</a> in a kind of modern-day <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Crusade">Children’s Crusade</a>.</p>
<p>Children, we want to believe, see the world clearly and speak up fearlessly, whereas adults – compromised, complicit, and constantly fearful for their job, status and mortgage payments – learn not to see what is staring them in the face. Who else but a young boy could have spoken up to reveal the emperor’s nakedness in Hans Christian Anderson’s fairytale?</p>
<p>But in the modern world the kid would probably be diagnosed with <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-just-a-tantrum-heres-what-to-do-if-your-child-has-oppositional-defiant-disorder-96014">oppositional defiant disorder</a>, while the tailoring industry would fund a think tank report to warn of the sovereign risk his comments pose to the regal robe sector, a vital contributor to the nation’s economic growth.</p>
<h2>Kids and climate</h2>
<p>On environmental issues and climate change there have been campaigns to educate and mobilise children for a very long time indeed. In 1970, Australian schoolchildren, especially in Canberra, were involved in <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/110461956">INSPECT</a> (the Inquiry into the State of Pollution and Environmental Conservation by Thoughtful People), which involved designing research projects on pollution and public attitudes to environmentalism.</p>
<p>Twenty years later, at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit (which spawned the deeply flawed United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), a then 13-year-old Severn Suzuki gave an impassioned address. Speaking on behalf of “12- and 13-year olds trying to make a difference”, she <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJJGuIZVfLM">told the adults</a> that they must change their ways, and that she was fighting for her future.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Severn Suzuki speaks in 1992.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Viewed in retrospect, the speech feels depressing. Despite the brilliant delivery, nothing has changed – if anything, things are worse.</p>
<p>Since 2004, various youth climate action groups have sprung up, including the <a href="http://www.aycc.org.au/">Australian Youth Climate Coalition</a>, formed in 2006.</p>
<p>In 2008 “<a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/al-gore-give-outright-presidential-bid/story?id=34176785">recovering politician</a>” Al Gore issued a <a href="https://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/gores-call-to-action/">clear call to action</a> for young climate activists:</p>
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<p>If you’re a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration.</p>
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<h2>What happens next?</h2>
<p>The march will take place, and the media will pay a certain amount of attention. Politicians will promise to take note. Exhausted organisers will need a rest. Some who attended will be motivated to do more. Others will feel they have “done their bit” now. </p>
<p>Marches can, at their best, help to break the <a href="https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/theorizing-spiral-of-violence-death-of-spiral-of-silence-theory-2165-7912.1000175.pdf">so-called</a> “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_of_silence">spiral of silence</a>”, where people don’t speak out because they assume that nobody else cares. At their worst, they act as a safety valve, substituting <a href="https://dwighttowers.wordpress.com/2012/08/03/mobilisation-versus-movement-building/">mobilisation for movement-building</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/out-of-step-marching-for-climate-justice-versus-taking-action-50128">Out of step: marching for climate justice versus taking action</a>
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<p>We should remember that this is by no means the first climate march (as I have <a href="https://theconversation.com/out-of-step-marching-for-climate-justice-versus-taking-action-50128">written previously on The Conversation</a>). After another rally in April 2017, Bill McKibben (he of divestment campaigns and 350.org) <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/04/27/how-is-this-weekends-climate-march-different-from-its-predecessor-now-the-task-is-full-on-resistance/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.864cc55b7d68">declared</a> that “now, the task is full-on resistance”.</p>
<p>How that resistance is sustained, and whether it can <a href="https://peacenews.info/node/8767/2019-how-we-blew-it-again">absorb new people, ideas and energy</a> and so grow more quickly than the atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, is the crucial question. Only time will tell – although we have precious little of it left.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100173/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc Hudson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This weekend sees a major youth climate rally in Washington DC. But do young people really hold the key to overcoming climate inaction, or are we wrong to put our faith in their ability to drive change?Marc Hudson, PhD Candidate, Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/967362018-05-18T11:53:03Z2018-05-18T11:53:03ZFive myths about Palestine’s youth activists – debunked<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219575/original/file-20180518-42210-17zhw86.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C7%2C1272%2C789&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag-Of-Palestine-Arab-Man-Waving-1081797.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Wisal Sheikh Khalil was just 14 years old when she was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/israels-use-of-fatal-fire-in-gaza-excessive-force-or-justified-mob-control/2018/05/16/435dc998-5856-11e8-9889-07bcc1327f4b_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.aeb41ac0698d">shot dead</a> by an Israeli sniper during the protests on May 14, 2018, in Gaza. Of the 60 Palestinians killed, eight were <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-44116340">under 16 years</a>, and most were under the age of 30. Earlier this month, 17-year-old Ahed Tamimi was sentenced to four months in prison by an Israeli military court, just one of <a href="https://www.btselem.org/statistics/minors_in_custody">over 300</a> Palestinian minors held in Israeli custody. </p>
<p>It can be hard for people outside the conflict to understand what motivates young Palestinians such as Wisal and Ahed to risk arrest, injury and death. Worse, there are several persistent myths which have clouded people’s perceptions about Palestinian activism, and youth activism more broadly. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=uQnHBQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=julie+norman+second+intifada&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjv9M7jgY_bAhWObMAKHTMdBPQQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=julie%20norman%20second%20intifada&f=false">research</a> with young Palestinian activists over the past ten years has given me a chance to investigate how they understand their role in the conflict – and collect the evidence needed to challenge those myths. </p>
<h2>Young people are ready to die</h2>
<p>During the height of the second intifada (or uprising) in the early 2000s, a story spread that young Palestinian activists were <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-report-highlights-palestinians-who-sought-suicide-through-attacks/">seeking death</a> through suicide bombing. This idea has persisted in Palestine and throughout the Middle East, with both media and academic focus on youth “<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jack-healey/youth-unemployment-in-the_b_9716874.html">radicalisation</a>” feeding into the rhetoric that young people are drawn towards violence or self-sacrifice. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gaza-now-has-a-toxic-biosphere-of-war-that-no-one-can-escape-95397">Gaza now has a toxic 'biosphere of war' that no one can escape</a>
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<p>Some youths may be thinking about martyrdom; Wisal, for example, had told her mother she was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/15/she-prayed-she-would-be-martyred-gaza-parents-mourn-their-dead">prepared to die</a>. But the actions taken by most young Palestinians are anything but a death wish. Rather, they are attempting to transform their daily lives under occupation. As Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/gaza-opinion-928597">wrote this week</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The misconception is that we actually have a choice, that we are wilfully choosing death. The truth is that the only remaining option is to silently be imprisoned, controlled, dispossessed, and attacked for being Palestinian. There is no choice but to seek life, and that is all that we are doing. This is our crime. We are the criminals that dared to wish for life.</p>
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<h2>More young people means more resistance</h2>
<p>A related myth is that of the “<a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/effects-youth-bulge-civil-conflicts">youth bulge</a>”: the idea that the sheer size of the youth population in the Middle East will lead to more resistance. In reality, that is not the case. While 30% of the population in Palestine is between the <a href="https://972mag.com/why-the-whole-region-is-looking-at-palestines-youth/126231/">ages of 15 and 29</a>, there is not notably more or less Palestinian activism now than there was in the past. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219568/original/file-20180518-42200-rtwlgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219568/original/file-20180518-42200-rtwlgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219568/original/file-20180518-42200-rtwlgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219568/original/file-20180518-42200-rtwlgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219568/original/file-20180518-42200-rtwlgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219568/original/file-20180518-42200-rtwlgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219568/original/file-20180518-42200-rtwlgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi marches with her mother and father beside her.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D8%B9%D9%87%D8%AF_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%85%D9%8A.jpg">Haim Schwarczenberg/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>As a protracted conflict, resistance in Palestine is intergenerational, with many of today’s young people taking inspiration from the earlier activism of their parents and grandparents, many of whom still participate in demonstrations, protests and other forms of everyday activism.</p>
<h2>Youth activism is spontaneous</h2>
<p>It is a misconception that youth-led protests <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/protests-erupt-in-gaza-ahead-of-nakba-and-us-embassy-opening-in-pictures-1.730314">spontaneously erupt</a> in Palestine. In fact, Monday’s protest was the culmination of over <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-44124556">six weeks of protest</a> at the Gaza border. Villages across the West Bank have held weekly demonstrations for years – some for <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/02/hundreds-mark-11th-year-protests-bilin-160219161932421.html">over a decade</a> . </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stop-telling-palestinians-to-be-resilient-the-rest-of-the-world-has-failed-them-96587">Stop telling Palestinians to be 'resilient' – the rest of the world has failed them</a>
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<p>Young people organise through local “popular committees”, campus groups, social media, word of mouth and direct outreach in villages, refugee camps and communities. While protests such as Monday’s garner the most attention, young people are active in other ways as well. They coordinate Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns, use media, music and art as modes of resistance and connect with international solidarity groups.</p>
<h2>Young people are the pawns of political parties</h2>
<p>There were reports that Hamas had orchestrated or <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-idf-believes-hamas-hijacked-the-gaza-protests-sees-no-end-in-sight-1.5978091">hijacked</a> Monday’s protests, suggesting that the estimated <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/many-among-40-000-protesters-knew-day-would-end-with-death-1.3495200">40,000 participants</a> – mostly young people – were simply political pawns. </p>
<p>While Hamas did provide <a href="http://www.mei.edu/content/article/hamas-supports-gaza-s-protest-movement-and-s-good-thing">logistical support</a> throughout the protests, nearly all young activists I have interviewed saw their resistance as distinct from any political party – Fatah or Hamas, neither of which has served Palestinian civilians well. </p>
<p>To suggest that young activists are passive pawns manipulated by the parties undercuts the agency and leadership that young Palestinians have expressed in the absence of strong leaders.</p>
<h2>Young people are the future</h2>
<p>Young Palestinians are not just the future – they are also the present. To refer to young people only as “the future” diminishes the important role they are already playing in Palestine, and throughout the Middle East, to reshape their societies and challenge political realities. </p>
<p>Young people are neither passive victims nor violent extremists; they are leaders, activists, students, artists and engaged citizens ready to challenge the status quo, not only for the future, but for the immediate present.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/for-gazas-peaceful-protesters-power-is-all-about-perception-96679">For Gaza's peaceful protesters, power is all about perception</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96736/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie M Norman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Young Palestinian activists are risking their lives to protest against Israeli occupation – here’s why.Julie M Norman, Research Fellow in Global Peace, Security, & Justice, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/757052017-04-23T10:20:57Z2017-04-23T10:20:57ZStability in the DRC: a look beyond political agreements<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166082/original/file-20170420-20071-1dek9hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The DRC has extraordinary potential for socioeconomic advancement.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Dai Kurokawa</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Once again, the cycle of instability and political uncertainty has the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on <a href="https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/democratic-republic-of-the-congo">high alert</a> and <a href="https://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/drc-011717.html">agreements</a> between prominent political actors have done little to stem the tide of violence.</p>
<p>The situation has become so dire that Congolese nationals at home and abroad have raised concerns about the safety of civilians. These were <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2017/sc12772.doc.htm">echoed</a> by the United Nations during a recent Security Council meeting.</p>
<p>Until the end of 2016, the insecurity was limited to the country’s eastern Ituri region but violence is now being reported in <a href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=56152#.WO-KAPnyuUk">Kasai</a> in the central region of the country. </p>
<p>Lives are lost daily and there have been reports of increasing <a href="https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/252881.pdf">human rights abuses</a>. As a result, the International Criminal Court is <a href="http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/04/01/ICC-prosecutor-says-violence-in-Congo-could-be-war-crimes/6571491079500/">following the situation</a> closely.</p>
<p>The renewed instability is partially a consequence of the failure by the Congolese government to organise the general elections in 2016, as per the country’s constitution. </p>
<p>This is considered by some as a deliberate political move orchestrated by the <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201509211333.html">“Majorite Presidentielle”</a> ruling coalition. In response, frustrated local communities have used violent protests to send a strong, clear <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/drc-opposition-protests-banned/a-38368338">message of dissent</a> to the government. Of course, these protests are also politically motivated and maintained. </p>
<p>In the face of this persistent insecurity, violence and political instability, scholars and policymakers have not been able to map out a viable peace plan. Peace talks alone are proving to be ineffective because the problems are structural. <a href="https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Project-and-Operations/Democratic%20Republic%20of%20Congo%20-%202013-2017%20-%20Country%20Strategy%20Paper.pdf">Institutional crisis</a>, <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/COD.pdf">poverty</a>, <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2013-03-27/income-inequality-congo-tale-two-cities">inequality</a>, individualistic leadership – and lack of political will to resolve these – are all key factors in the ongoing conflict. These need to be addressed if the DRC is ever to break the cycle of insecurity it’s caught up in.</p>
<h2>Struggle for legitimacy</h2>
<p>Ever since the 2016 elections were postponed, parliament, the senate and other executive institutions have been operating “off mandate”. Officials within the executive and legislative branches of government will continue to perform their functions until fresh elections are held.</p>
<p>This is in line with the constitutional court’s <a href="http://www.africanews.com/2016/10/17/drc-s-constitutional-court-rules-that-elections-be-postponed//">interpretation of the constitution</a>. But this doesn’t address the issue of legitimacy. </p>
<p>Legitimacy must be socially as well as legally recognised. Recent protests suggest that the current government isn’t perceived as legitimate by the people of the DRC. And they are likely to continue until a legitimate government is installed. </p>
<p>Institutional legitimacy is key to the stability and security of the DRC. This legitimacy can only be rebuilt through fair and inclusive elections. Failure to follow this route will result in a cycle of violence and instability. </p>
<h2>Addressing social and economic inequality</h2>
<p>While institutional illegitimacy is a major hurdle to peace and stability in the DRC, the violence is also <a href="http://africanarguments.org/2016/12/12/hungry-for-change-the-economics-underlying-dr-congos-political-crisis/">anchored</a> in poverty and economic inequality.</p>
<p>The UN’s latest <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/COD.pdf">Multidimensional Poverty Index</a> reports that 77.1% of the Congolese population live below the poverty line. Therefore, any peace plan that doesn’t take a proper look at the social and economic factors that feed conflict will be meaningless. </p>
<p>The more people are deprived of basic human needs, the greater the chance of violent protest. Conversely, poverty alleviation and access to economic opportunities would reduce violence in the DRC. </p>
<p>To raise the majority of the country out of poverty the government must invest in initiatives that promote economic and financial <a href="https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2015/cr15280.pdf">inclusion</a> from the ground up.
Change in the DRC will only occur if it’s <a href="https://www.cordaid.org/media/medialibrary/2014/09/Cordaid-Social_Entrepreneurship-HR.pdf">nurtured from the grassroots</a>.</p>
<h2>Good governance and leadership</h2>
<p>The stability of any country also depends on its ability to transition peacefully from one leader to another. If the DRC had invested in a mechanism for the peaceful transition of power the country wouldn’t be in turmoil today.</p>
<p>With more than half of its population being under the age of 24, the country has extraordinary potential for <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-reese/5-ways-to-drive-youth-inc_b_12138190.html">socioeconomic advancement</a>. But this can only be achieved if the political class includes the youth in decision-making processes with a view to entrenching a culture of transferable leadership. </p>
<p>This would require fundamental changes in the leadership approach and a shift towards ethical, humanistic and inclusive practices. Political actors must put aside their own individualistic interests and ambitions for the benefit of the national interest. </p>
<p>For institutional reform, economic restructuring and the peaceful transfer of power to happen, politicians and policymakers must act in good faith. The history of the DRC suggests that there’s no political will for change. But the new wave of young leaders who are hungry for change may be able to put enough pressure on government to effect it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75705/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yvan Yenda Ilunga does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Political agreements between major political actors aren’t enough to ensure stability in the DRC. Structural changes are needed as is a new approach towards governance.Yvan Yenda Ilunga, PhD Candidate, The Division of Global Affairs, Rutgers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/739372017-03-21T17:33:20Z2017-03-21T17:33:20ZChildren are leading the way on tackling sexual harassment in schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161830/original/image-20170321-630-1ev124h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children are ruling the way.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Heloise Godfrey-Talbot.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Children and young people’s experiences of sexual harassment in British schools has reached a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/29/epidemic-sexual-assaults-schools-groped-pornographic-images-slags">crisis point</a>. When the first parliamentary inquiry report into <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-sexual-harassment-in-schools-is-a-hateful-part-of-everyday-life-65452">sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools</a> was launched in late 2016 it included more than <a href="http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/women-and-equalities-committee/sexual-harassment-and-sexual-violence-in-schools/written/33509.html">70 submissions</a> with 12 recommendations <a href="https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmwomeq/91/9111.htm?utm_source=91&utm_medium=crbullet&utm_campaign=modulereports">including</a> that sexual violence “will only be reduced by a whole-school approach”. </p>
<p>It also recognised that children need to be educated about gender equality <a href="https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmwomeq/91/9111.htm#_idTextAnchor103">to address</a> “entrenched views about gender norms”, which are often used by children and adults to justify and undermine sexual harassment – <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0907568202009004004">including</a> homophobic and heterosexist verbal abuse, and physical sexual assault – in <a href="https://theconversation.com/violence-against-women-starts-with-school-stereotypes-18440">primary</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/gender-stereotypes-make-teenagers-more-accepting-of-violence-33505">secondary</a> schools. </p>
<p>And yet, though there have been <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2017-03-07/debates/F4749711-5C4E-4937-9F42-CF8B1842CCB8/ChildrenAndSocialWorkBill(Lords)">some moves</a> to address the inquiry’s recommendations, the focus has been almost exclusively on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/mar/01/sex-education-compulsory-secondary-schools">protection, safeguarding, and curriculum content</a>. Understanding and preventing sexual harassment in schools appears to be slipping off the policy agenda. </p>
<p>But the matter has not fallen completely into stagnation: children and young people are beginning to address the problems themselves. </p>
<h2>Youth activism</h2>
<p>For the last decade young people have been leading activism on a vast range of issues, from <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/school-dress-codes-are-problematic/410962/">skirt-length</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXH2K7OC37s">slut-shaming</a>, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/03/08/we-give-consent-tessa-hill-lia-valente_n_9411044.html">sexual consent</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqghjGBfB54">female genital mutilation</a> and <a href="http://www.rewindreframe.org/">misogynoir in the music industry</a>, to <a href="http://www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/9/30/family-friends-mourn-madison-trans-teen-activist-skyler-marcus-lee">trans-rights</a>, <a href="https://www.childcomwales.org.uk/our-work/sallys-blog/take-pride/">inclusive sexuality education</a> and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/feminism-why-im-campaigning-for-uk-schools-to-teach-boys-and-gir/">why feminism should be on the school curriculum</a>. Knowingly or unknowingly supported by a rich history of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/mar/29/fifth-wave-feminists-young-activists">feminist+ movements and legacies</a>, <a href="http://www.carbonated.tv/viral/teacher-has-the-best-reaction-to-students-secret-feminist-note">children</a> and young people are creating their own distinctive ripples and waves to new and enduring <a href="http://girltalkhq.com/these-teen-feminist-groups-are-leading-the-fight-for-gender-equality-intersectionality/">intersectional gender and sexual inequities</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161823/original/image-20170321-5384-15saeu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161823/original/image-20170321-5384-15saeu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161823/original/image-20170321-5384-15saeu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161823/original/image-20170321-5384-15saeu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161823/original/image-20170321-5384-15saeu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161823/original/image-20170321-5384-15saeu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161823/original/image-20170321-5384-15saeu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Art activism in Wales.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rowan Blake Talbot</span></span>
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<p>However, calling-out gender norms, and their intersections with other markers of difference – age, ethnicity, religion, faith, sexuality, dis/ability, locality and so on – <a href="https://www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/OpenAccess/MitchellGirlhood/MitchellGirlhood_06.pdf">is not without risk</a>. Young people and their <a href="https://theestablishment.co/author-lyn-mikel-brown-says-we-ignore-girl-driven-activism-at-our-own-peril-c7a3606d0c76#.e7dtn3k60">adult allies</a> all too often experience a backlash when raising awareness of gender and sexuality issues. Some <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09589236.2016.1266792">debates</a> are derailed before they get started by assumptions that are too often steeped in what is considered socially and <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%252F978-981-10-0306-6_6">culturally “taboo”</a>, or what is <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137353382">developmentally and age appropriate</a>. </p>
<p>What children and young people <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09589236.2016.1211511?src=recsys&journalCode=cjgs20">urgently need</a> are supportive and safe spaces to express and do something about the gender and sexual injustices they feel and see. They also need people, structures, and the knowledge that can nurture and sustain their rights. But getting this to work <a href="https://ioelondonblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/06/feminism-is-everywhere-but-so-is-sexism-do-teachers-understand-what-this-means-in-the-classroom/">in schools</a> is no easy task.</p>
<h2>On the agenda</h2>
<p>At present, Wales is the only nation that has a devolved <a href="http://gov.wales/topics/people-and-communities/communities/safety/domesticabuse/publications/good-practice-guide-a-whole-education-approach/?lang=en">government guide</a> for taking a whole school approach to sexual harassment, <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2015/3/contents/enacted">backed by law</a>. But we wanted to go further than this, and support young people themselves.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.nspcc.org.uk/services-and-resources/research-and-resources/2013/boys-girls-speak-out/">research project</a> explicitly set out to listen to the experiences of everyday sexism and sexual harassment by children aged ten to twelve. Even at this age, they were frustrated and angry at having to put up with these forms of abuse, and not knowing what to do about it. </p>
<p>We listened, and we acted. The result was a <a href="https://www.nspcc.org.uk/services-and-resources/research-and-resources/2016/agenda-young-peoples-guide-positive-relationships/">national resource kit for Wales</a>, made in partnership with Cardiff University, the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, NSPCC/Cymru, Welsh Women’s Aid, young people and practitioners. Importantly, <a href="http://agenda.wales/">AGENDA: A Young People’s Guide to Making Positive Relationships Matter</a> takes forward a core component of Wales’ whole school approach – supporting young people to take action themselves. </p>
<p>With equality, diversity, children’s rights and social justice at its heart, AGENDA enables young people to speak out on gender and sexual injustices and violence through their own and others’ change-making practices. It’s an affirmative, ethical-political and creative approach to learn about and change deeply entrenched and complex issues. </p>
<p>It recognises the powerful potential of how <a href="http://theconversation.com/art-activism-and-our-creative-future-46185">arts-based methods</a>, such as <a href="http://tender.org.uk/the-journey/creative-campaigns/">visual arts, poetry & theatre</a>, can enable young people to engage with all too frequently silenced issues. It can help make the personal political in collective ways: from LGBQ&T and feminist youth groups delivering <a href="https://twitter.com/EmmaRenold/status/820206725047394304">staff workshops on gender diversity</a>, using card games and cooking as a form of engagement.</p>
<p>There have been more striking <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09589236.2017.1296352">art-activisms</a> to come out of the guide too. Graffitied ruler-skirts have been worn <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/37347702/inside-the-school-tackling-sexual-harassment-head-on">in school assemblies</a> to speak out about unwanted touching, and physics concepts like force, friction and gravity, have been used to explore <a href="https://vimeo.com/166068771">coercion and control</a> in teen relationships.</p>
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<p>Of course, AGENDA is only a resource, and resources need to be <a href="http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/how-you-can-celebrate-international-12708785">used, enlivened and supported</a>. But it joins an increasing number of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2017/jan/20/schools-teachers-students-gender-feminism">local, national</a> and international practices, supported by <a href="https://www.awid.org">organisations</a>, <a href="http://www.genderandeducation.com/">networks</a> and, in this case, national governments.</p>
<p>However, key questions still remain. Assets like AGENDA can be radical and risky to implement for students and their teachers. So how can schools, communities and service providers be better supported to work together to address the complex and intersectional ways in which sexual harassment and violence is experienced? Especially in times of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/17/domestic-violence-protesters-sisters-uncut-direct-action">austerity and government cuts</a>? How can children and young people be further supported to speak out on issues that are too often silenced, normalised or stigmatised? And what does it mean to challenge the impact of gender norms and inequalities in the midst of a <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/01/">Gender Revolution</a>?</p>
<p>Our work is a start but still more needs to be done – and young people are the key actors in taking these agendas forward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73937/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Renold received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Emma Renold is currently the appointed chair for the Welsh Government's expert panel for the current and forthcoming Healthy Relationships Curriculum. </span></em></p>Wales is the only UK nation that is empowering children to address sexism and harassment in schools.Emma Renold, Professor of Childhood Studies, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.