Young people have their own unique political and cultural interests that young people have been working to make change around for decades. Young people are also critical social movement participants. Neither of these facts are recognized enough in the social movements literature. This set of projects is about understanding, and hopefully, correcting this.
If you are interested in learning more about the area in general, here are a few overview publications:
Earl, Jennifer, Thomas V. Maher, and Thomas Elliott. 2017. “Youth, Activism, and Social Movements.” Sociology Compass 11(4): http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12465.
Hiding in Plain Sight: The Role of Youth in Politics and Activism https://mobilizingideas.wordpress.com/2018/05/30/hiding-in-plain-sight-the-role-of-youth-in-politics-and-activism/
Earl, Jennifer, Thomas V. Maher, and Thomas Elliott. 2018. “Youth, activism, and social movements.” Syllabus published in TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology. Washington DC: American Sociological Association. (http://trails.asanet.org)
Youth Activism Project (YAP)
This project was part of the Youth Activism Project, which is funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and was part of the Youth and Participatory Politics Research Network. The project is collecting data to compare youth-directed versus adult-directed websites for activism.
A central goal of this project is to gain a better understanding of youth engagement in online activism by exploring how websites target youth activists and address youth causes or issues in comparison to adults.
Current online resources include:
- a video series, “Informing Activists,” co-produced with the blog Mobilizing Ideas, that features short videos by major social movement scholars on issues that young activists may want to consider in organizing and participating in social movements: https://mobilizingideas.wordpress.com/2015/11/13/informing-activists/
- a review of research on the consequences of online social movement activity, which has been compiled into a searchable database and is located at http://yapdatabase-yppnetwork.net/
- a bibliography of important early work on online activism (it hasn’t been updated in the last year or two, though): Google Sheet
This research projects was focused on:
- a comparison of youth-directed versus adult-directed websites for activism;
- a review of findings from political communication that could be incorporated into research on youth social movement engagement;
- an interview-based study with youth who never, sometimes, and frequently engage in flash activism to understand how youth make decisions about participating in flash activism, particular in contrast to other options (such as disengagement or more sustained activism);
- an edited volume based on research presented at a convening composed of activists and scholars that will chart an agenda for studying the consequences of flash activism for youth;
- an evaluation of the effectiveness of online boycotts, including evaluating whether youth market-orientations by companies influence effectiveness;
- and an interview-based study of how targets perceive online protest tactics.
This project benefited from the effort of many people, including post-docs Becka Alper, Thomas Elliott, and Tom Maher; graduate students Heidi Reynolds-Stenson, Misty Ring-Ramirez, and Kate Gunby; and undergraduates (not limited to) Jordan Mette, Liz Spohn, Madison Woodward, and Devan Gengler. I don’t have pictures from all years of the labs, but here are some of the folks who contributed:
Archived Material from this project include an informational page for potential interview participants
Select Publications from this project include:
Earl, Jennifer, Thomas V. Maher, and Thomas Elliott. 2017. “Youth, Activism, and Social Movements.” Sociology Compass 11(4): http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12465.
Maher, Thomas V., and Jennifer Earl. 2017. “Pathways to Contemporary Youth Protest: The Continuing Relevance of Family, Friends, and School for Youth Micromobilization.” Emerald Studies in Media and Communication 14: 55-87.
Elliott, Thomas, Jennifer Earl, and Thomas V. Maher. 2017. “Recruiting Inclusiveness: Intersectionality, Social Movements, and Youth Online.” Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change 41: 279-311 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/S0163-786X20170000041019
Earl, Jennifer. 2018. “Youth Protest’s New Tools and Old Concerns.” Contexts 17(2): 15-17. https://contexts.org/articles/resist-or-what
Elliott, Thomas and Jennifer Earl. 2018. “Online Protest Participation and the Digital Divide: Modeling the Effect of the Digital Divide on Online Petition Signing.” New Media & Society 20(2): 698-719. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1461444816669159
Elliott, Thomas and Jennifer Earl. 2018. “Organizing the Next Generation: Youth Engagement with Activism Inside and Outside of Organizations.” Social Media + Society Jan-Mar: 1-14. DOI: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2056305117750722
Earl, Jennifer, Thomas V. Maher, and Thomas Elliott. 2018. “Youth, activism, and social movements.” Syllabus published in TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology. Washington DC: American Sociological Association. (http://trails.asanet.org)
Maher, Thomas V. and Jennifer Earl. 2019. “Barrier or Booster? Digital Media, Social Networks, and Youth Micromobilization.” Sociological Perspectives 62(6): 865–883. https://doi.org/10.1177/0731121419867697
Thomas Elliott and Jennifer Earl. 2019. “Kids These Days: Supply and Demand for Youth Online Political Engagement.” Pp. 69-100 in Digital Media and Democratic Futures, edited by Michael X. Delli Carpini. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Maher, Thomas V., Morgan Johnstonbaugh and Jennifer Earl. 2020. “One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Connecting Views of Activism with Youth Activist Identification.” Mobilization 25 (1): 27–44. https://doi.org/10.17813/1086-671X-25-1-27
Maher, Thomas V., and Jennifer Earl. 2021. “Living Down to Expectations: Age Inequality and Youth Activism.” Research in Political Sociology 28: 215-235. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0895-993520210000028011
Elliott, Thomas and Jennifer Earl. 2021. “Talking with or Talking at Young Activists? Mediated Youth Engagement in Web-Accessible Spaces.” Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change 45: 57-84. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0163-786X20210000045004
Young People in Historical and Contemporary Protest
Stay tuned… This is a project I have been developing for approximately 2 years that I should start posting about soon…
School Protests
Stay tuned… This is a project I have been developing for a few years that I should start posting about soon… In the interim, check out this publication on school principals reactions to protest:
Kwako, Alexander, John Rogers, Jennifer Earl, and Joseph Kahne. 2023. “Principals’ Responses to Student Gun Violence Protests: Deter, Manage, or Educate for Democracy?” Teachers College Record 125(2) 131–177. Available online at: https://doi.org/10.1177/01614681231163629