Behind the Popular Narrative: Negotiating Life and Political Engagement in Conflicted Kashmir

2021 ◽  
pp. 232102302110430
Author(s):  
Wahid Ahmad Dar
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The State ◽  
Comprehensive Understanding ◽  
Popular Narrative ◽  
Political Actions

The article focuses on the subaltern system of micro appropriations or Jugaads used by young Kashmiris to survive within precarious situations inflicted due to armed conflict. More particularly, it argues that such Jugaads are invoked by the subaltern consciousness of Tehreeq-e-Azadi, which offers space for not just the negotiation with the state but also the creative improvisation of daily political actions. It is illustrated that young people’s political participation is entangled with the attempts to overcome the uncertainty around their lives, thereby offering them pragmatic solutions in advancing their interests. It is further elaborated that the existing polarization between separatism and mainstream is obscure at the experiential level, living within precarious situations has taught young people to silently craft possibilities of a good life without looking confrontational to either side. The article argues that localized forms of engagement are crucial for a comprehensive understanding of how modern states operate.

Gender inequalities in political participation and political engagement among young people in Europe: Are young women less politically engaged than young men?

Politics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 026339572110288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Grasso ◽  
Katherine Smith
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Political Inequality ◽  
Political News ◽  
Current State ◽  
Detailed Picture

This paper contributes to the literature by examining gender inequalities in political participation and political engagement among young people from a comparative perspective. By analyzing data on young people from nine European countries collected in 2018, we examine gender inequalities in participation in various modes of conventional and unconventional activism as well as related attitudes, broader political engagement and key determinants, cross-nationally, in order to provide a detailed picture of the current state of gender inequalities in political activism among young people in Europe. Our results allow us to speak to extant theorizing about gender inequalities by showing that the extent of political inequality between young men and women is less marked than one might expect. While the gender gaps in political participation for activities such as confrontational types of protest are small or absent, we find that young women are actually more active in petitioning, buycotting, and volunteering in the community. Young men instead are more active than young women in a majority of the nine countries analysed with respect to more institutional forms of participation linked to organizations and parties, various types of online political participation, and broader political engagement measures, such as internal political efficacy and consumption of political news through various channels. However, young men also appear to be more sceptical at least of certain aspects of democratic practice relative to young women.

Online youth political engagement and bureaucratization: The Australian Youth Forum

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 767-781
Author(s):  
Prashanth Pillay
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Youth Participation ◽  
Political Involvement ◽  
Youth Policy ◽  
Political Values ◽  
Digital Society ◽  
Online Engagement ◽  
Depth Interviews

Through in-depth interviews with all 10 youth representatives who worked in the Australian Youth Forum (AYF), Australia’s first online government youth forum, this article explains how online engagement was experienced and understood by those who managed its day-to-day operation. While the AYF was decommissioned in 2014, it was the first, and, till date, only online federal initiative that invited young people to run a government-funded youth public forum. Despite its relatively short existence, the AYF provokes questions about the influence of historically entrenched political values on online youth political participation and policy. Findings from this article have uncovered a series of challenges faced by youth in adjusting to government efforts to regulate consultation within the AYF. Building on Collin’s (2015, Young Citizens and Political Participation in a Digital Society: Addressing the Democratic Disconnect. London: Palgrave Macmillan.) observation of a ‘democratic disconnect’ in Australian youth policy, an incompatibility between government expectations of youth political involvement and how young people value participation, this article suggests that the AYF provided key insights into the centralized bureaucratic arrangements that have historically defined Australian youth participation and how they influence youth participatory experiences in online government initiatives.

scholarly journals Information literacy as a tool to support political participation

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (123) ◽  
pp. 14-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren N Smith
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Information Provision ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
School Libraries ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Potential Tool

Recent political events have raised the profile of information literacy as a potential tool for supporting informed political participation. This article emphasises the importance of supporting political engagement through information provision and information literacy development, drawing on findings from two research projects to discuss what information needs young people have in relation to political engagement and identify some examples of work taking place in Scottish school libraries to help young people develop political knowledge and feel able to participate meaningfully in democratic processes. Some of the main barriers to libraries engaging with this work are also discussed.

scholarly journals Intra-generational inequalities in young people’s political participation in Europe: The impact of social class on youth political engagement

Politics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 026339572110317
Author(s):  
Maria Grasso ◽  
Marco Giugni
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Young People ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Generational Differences ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Class Background ◽  
National Perspective ◽  
Europe Today ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Cross National

The declining political engagement of youth is a concern in many European democracies. However, young people are also spearheading protest movements cross-nationally. While there has been research on political inequalities between generations or inter-generational differences, research looking at differences within youth itself, or inequalities between young people from different social backgrounds, particularly from a cross-national perspective, is rare. In this article, we aim to fill this gap in the literature. Using survey data from 2018 on young people aged 18–34 years, we analyse how social class background differentiates groups of young people in their political engagement and activism across nine European countries. We look at social differentiation by social class background for both political participation in a wide variety of political activities including conventional, unconventional, community and online forms of political participation, and at attitudes linked to broader political engagement, to paint a detailed picture of extant inequalities amongst young people from a cross-national perspective. The results clearly show that major class inequalities exist in political participation and broader political engagement among young people across Europe today.

When Citizens in Authoritarian States Use Facebook for Social Ties but Not Political Participation

2017 ◽  
pp. 192-214
Author(s):  
Wairagala Wakabi
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Internet Use ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Social Ties ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The State ◽  
Civic Skills ◽  
Western Democracies

Numerous researchers have found a correlation between citizens' use of social networking sites (SNS) like Facebook and their likelihood for eParticipation. However, SNS use does not have the same effect on all citizens' political engagement. In authoritarian countries, Facebook offers a platform for citizens to challenge the power of the state, provide alternative narratives and mobilise for political change. This chapter examines how using Facebook affects the participative behaviours of Ugandans and concludes that in low internet use, authoritarian contexts, the Civic Voluntarism Model's postulation of the factors that explain political participation, and the benefits Facebook brings to participation in Western democracies, are upended. Overwhelming detachment from politics, low belief in citizens' online actions influencing change and fear of reprisals for criticising an authoritarian president in power for 30 years, severely dulled the appetite for eParticipation. Hence, Facebook was growing citizens' civic skills but hardly increasing online participation.

scholarly journals Growth of Destructive Activity among Young People: Causes and Prospects

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 125-128
Author(s):  
K. T. Lukianenko
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
The State ◽  
Negative Trend ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Political Actions

Currently, in the Russian Federation, the increasing attention of the state is attracted by the growth of the political activity of Russian youth . This activity has both a productive expression and a destructive one . At the same time, an increasing number of young people are taking part in various unsystematic political actions directed against the state . Against the background of these processes, questions of the effectiveness of working with youth are of particular importance, since further prospects for the development of moods and trends in the youth environment remain unclear and difficult to predict . Undoubtedly, the growth of the destructive activity of youth is a negative trend, which has many reasons, including the actions of the state . This article discusses the causes and possible prospects for the growth of destructive activity in the youth environment in the Russian Federation.

scholarly journals Young People’s Political Participation in Malaysia During the 1998 Reformasi Era

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Norhafiza Mohd Hed
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Young People ◽  
New Media ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Socioeconomic Factors ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Regional Trend

This article examines the dynamics of young people’s political participation in Malaysia during the 1998 Reformasi era by focusing its analyses on the patterns of participation and the impacts of the 1998 Reformasi and the 1999 general election on young people’s political engagement.  By using content analysis of secondary data, the findings show that the 1998 Reformasi marked as a turning point that changed political engagement of young people from politically indifferent or disconnected generation to politically engaged citizens, whether in the forms of conventional politics (i.e. voting) or unconventional politics (i.e. protest activism and social movements) whilst failed to replace the existing ruling regime.  This change was closely related to the regional trend, socioeconomic factors and the new media.

When Citizens in Authoritarian States Use Facebook for Social Ties but Not Political Participation

2019 ◽  
pp. 1143-1165
Author(s):  
Wairagala Wakabi
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Internet Use ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Social Ties ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The State ◽  
Civic Skills ◽  
Western Democracies

Numerous researchers have found a correlation between citizens' use of social networking sites (SNS) like Facebook and their likelihood for eParticipation. However, SNS use does not have the same effect on all citizens' political engagement. In authoritarian countries, Facebook offers a platform for citizens to challenge the power of the state, provide alternative narratives and mobilise for political change. This chapter examines how using Facebook affects the participative behaviours of Ugandans and concludes that in low internet use, authoritarian contexts, the Civic Voluntarism Model's postulation of the factors that explain political participation, and the benefits Facebook brings to participation in Western democracies, are upended. Overwhelming detachment from politics, low belief in citizens' online actions influencing change and fear of reprisals for criticising an authoritarian president in power for 30 years, severely dulled the appetite for eParticipation. Hence, Facebook was growing citizens' civic skills but hardly increasing online participation.

scholarly journals School-to-work transitions support: ‘cruel optimism’ for young people in ‘the state of insecurity’

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-188
Author(s):  
Charlotte Chadderton
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Judith Butler ◽  
School To Work ◽  
The State ◽  
School Based ◽  
Work Transitions ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Individual

In this paper, I argue that current arrangements for school-to-work transitions support in England, now school-based, are designed to contribute towards ensuring the consent of the population for what I refer to as the ‘state of insecurity’ (Lorey, 2015): the neoliberal relationship between the individual and the state in which insecurity is promoted as freedom. Based on an analysis of policy, the paper argues that the government careers strategy for young people aims to contribute to shaping the precarious subjects which inhabit the state of insecurity, by encouraging them to internalise neoliberal values around freedom and individualism which accompany governmental precarisation. Drawing also on the work of Judith Butler (2011), I suggest that throughout the careers strategy, neoliberalism functions as performative or hegemonic norm which is cited to constitute notions of ‘good’ or ‘normal’ labour market arrangements, aspirations and selves. I suggest that this strategy is an example of Berlant's (2011) ‘cruel optimism’, which constitutes a fantasy of a ‘good life’ which is in fact likely to be unattainable to many young people, especially the more disadvantaged.

scholarly journals Environmental activism as a new form of political participation of the youth in Serbia

Sociologija ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 387-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelisaveta Vukelic ◽  
Dragan Stanojevic
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Environmental Activism ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Involvement ◽  
Political Expression ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
New Form ◽  
Established Democracies

The aim of this paper is to explore whether the environmental activism is a new form of political participation of the Serbian youth. One of the characteristics of the postindustrial societies is a general citizen withdrawal from the traditional channels of political participation. Political disengagement is thought to characterize all citizens but most of all the young people. However, although young people may have turned away from mainstream politics, they are nevertheless concerned with a wide range of issues that could be considered political in a broader sense of the term. In the post-socialist Europe young people tend to be even less involved in political life than the youth in the established democracies. However, they are also likely to adopt novel forms of political expression. Whether the Serbian youth follow the same pattern of political involvement, we intend to explore in this article. In searching for the answer to this question, we will focus our analysis on the environmental activism, as one of the forms of the new political engagement widely accepted among young people.

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