Youth Activism and Emerging Forms of Protest ➜

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My ongoing research has also paid particular attention to the generational dynamics of contemporary protest, particularly in relation to the global justice and Occupy movements. To what extent can these struggles be considered youth movements? Specifically, what role have young people played within these movements? What are the links between youth activism and new forms of communication, organization, and protest?

My research has found that contemporary struggles like the anti-corporate globalization and Occupy movements are best characterized as inter-generational movements, but that young people have assumed the leading edge of protest, taking on leadership roles with respect to new digital and social media and network-based organizational forms, as well as creative and spectacular forms of mass direct action. However, it is important to recognize the socio-cultural and political significance of such practices and not to dismiss them as fleeting expressions of youth. In this sense, contemporary youth activism provides a model of innovative forms of social action, organization, and communication that may spread more widely.

RELATED PUBLICATIONS

☛ Reflections on #Occupy Everywhere: Social Media, Public Space, and Emerging Logics of Aggregation (PDF)
Jeffrey S. Juris (2012). American Ethnologist 39 (2): 259-279.

☛ La Globalización Alternativa y los  Novísimos Movimientos Sociales (PDF)
Jeffrey S. Juris, Carles Feixa, and Inés Pereira (2012). Revista del Centro de Investigación, Universidad La Salle 10 (37): 23-39.

☛ Global Citizenship and the ‘New, New’ Social Movements: Iberian Connections (PDF)
Carles Feixa, Inés Pereira, and Jeffrey S. Juris (2009). Young 17 (4): 421-442.

☛ Alter-Activism: Emerging Cultures of Participation  Among Young Global Justice Activists (PDF)
Jeffrey S. Juris and Geoffrey H. Pleyers (2009). The Journal of Youth Studies 12(1): 51-75.

☛ Youth and the World Social Forum (PDF)
Jeffrey S. Juris (2005). Youth Activism, a Web forum organized by The Social Science Research Council.
Archived at: http://ya.ssrc.org/transnational/Juris/