Youth environmental activism : subversion or confined to the existing order?

Banjac, Marinko (author)

The article addresses different forms of youth environmental activism, starting from the phenomenon of the ambivalent position held by young people in environmental activism where on one hand they stand up for structural and radical change and, on the other, they cooperate with the authorities or at least make demands of them, thereby giving them legitimacy. The paper focuses on the relationship of young resisting subjectivities towards power and their interplay with strategies and practices and power mechanisms in the field of environmental regulation. The paper addresses various forms of youth environmental activism, especially looking at young dissenting subjectivities’ relationship to power and their intertwining with governing strategies and practices in the environmental field. Focus is given to the ways in which young activists are implicated in, constituted within, and respond to power relations and the exercise of governing, particularly when it comes to environmental issues. It draws on the Foucauldian approach of eco-governmentality and the analytical concept of counter-conduct as an analytical concept to examine how young activists address, co-constitute and potentially subvert or undermine power structures. Using this approach, we reflect on the diversity of agency found in youth activism, which includes an examination of the different forms, actions, strategies and practices associated with this activism.

• Language: English
• Keywords: youth, environmental activism, political ecology, eco-governmentality, counter counduct
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.07.2024
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 363-386
• Numbering: Letn. 61, št. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-160906-1e9fecfb-702b-8704-4739-0fa1cf1f5640
• UDC: 321.02-053.6:504.7
• ISSN on article: 0040-3598
• DOI: 10.51936/tip.61.2.363
• COBISS.SI-ID: 200913155
• Publication date in RUL: 05.09.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Teorija in praksa : revija za družbena vprašanja
• Shortened title: Teor. praksa
• Publisher: Fakulteta za družbene vede
• ISSN: 0040-3598
• COBISS.SI-ID: 763652

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Okoljski aktivizem mladih

Abstract

Članek obravnava različne oblike okoljskega aktivizma mladih, pri čemer izhaja iz fenomena njihove ambivalentne pozicije, ko se po eni strani zavzemajo za strukturne in radikalne spremembe, po drugi strani pa z obstoječimi oblastmi sodelujejo ali pa jim vsaj postavljajo zahteve in s tem dajejo legitimnost. Članek se tako osredini na odnos mladih upirajočih se subjektivitet do moči in njihovo prepletanje s strategijami in praksami ter oblastnimi mehanizmi na področju urejanja okoljskih vprašanj. Osredotoča se na načine, na katere so mladi aktivisti vpeti v oblastna razmerja in izvajanje vladanja, se v njih oblikujejo ter se nanje odzivajo. Članek se pri tem opira na foucaultovski pristop ekovladnosti in koncept protidelovanja kot analitično perspektivo preučevanja, kako mladi aktivisti naslavljajo, sokonstituirajo in potencialno subvertirajo ali spodkopavajo oblastne strukture. Na podlagi tega pristopa reflektiramo raznolikost delovanja, ki jo je mogoče prepoznati v mladinskem aktivizmu, kar obsega tudi premislek o različnih oblikah, strategijah in praksah, povezanih s tem aktivizmom.

• Keywords: mladi, okoljski aktivizem, politična ekologija, ekovladnost, protidelovanje