Heading for a better world: micropolitical activism of young people seeking social change

Müller-Bachmann, Eckart

Heading for a better world: micropolitical activism of young people seeking social change / Eckart Müller-Bachmann, Ivan Chorvát, Alessia Mefalopulos. -- The article explores young people’s expressions of political activism as a combination of the participation and agency of young people reflecting, in particular on the ethical and emotional dimensions of their social involvement. The findings are based on ethnographic research carried out with three groups of young people (the Autonomists in Germany, the No-TAV in Italy and the Not In Our Town in Slovakia) who are actively engaged in responding to the social conflict they experience or perceive. The article is based on the analysis of 61 semi-structured interviews employing a metaethnographic synthesis approach. The findings show that stigmatisation and conflict with authority and the perception of social injustice motivate the young people to engage actively in society and create alternative lifestyles and communities on the principles of solidarity, equality and mutual respect. A sense of community and solidarity emerges as both a stimulus and an outcome of young people’s social involvement and demonstrate the centrality to their engagement of its ethical and emotional dimensions. The authors suggest that relatively new forms of political activism may be understood as a cumulation of micropolitical practices driven by individual constellations of ethical and moral issues rather than by traditional, ideologically oriented political structures.

In Journal of Youth Studies. -- Abingdon : Taylor & Francis Group, 2023. -- ISSN 1367-6261. -- ISSN 1469-9680. -- Vol. 26, no. 3 (2023), pp. 387-405