Constructs of childhood, generation and heroism in editorials on young people's climate change activism: Their mobilisation and effects

Abstract

We analyse the effects of constructions and mobilisations of childhood, generation and girl heroism in 30 Canadian editorials written in response to 2019 climate change protests. We discuss how the editorials strategically positionand sometimes dismiss-young activists through discourses of childhood innocence, becoming and social participation. Second, we focus on how the editorials mobilise generation to emphasise either generational division or cross-generational solidarity. Finally, we problematise the editorials' concentration on individualised girl heroism. We thus contextualise and deconstruct truth statements around age, generation and heroism, emphasising instead their effects and the potential for certain narratives to better recognise the diversity and solidarity in climate change activism.

Reimagining African Women Youth Climate Activism: The Case of Vanessa Nakate

“…Similarly, a Canadian study analysed ideas of youth climate activism in newspaper editorials. The study found that conservative constructions of childhood innocence, children as 'becoming' the heroic individual hero, and mobilising ideas of generations all serve to depoliticise, undermine and suppress activism in the name of 'childhood' [2].…”

“…African women youth activists are underrepresented, undermined, and silenced in mainstream climate activism. Importantly, their agency to fight those oppressive systems has hitherto been underexplored [1,2]. This study focuses on how agency is deployed and enacted in Vanessa Nakate, an African woman climate activist.…”

“…Studies have, for example, focused on understanding the formation(s) [3] and impacts [4] of the growth in youth climate activism as a form of civic engagement. Others have focused on the multilevel structural constraints to youth climate activism and extreme personal abuse directed towards female youth activists [2].…”

“…In so doing, activists attempt to create, reimagine and develop representations of their activisms. There is small but growing literature on agency in youth climate activism and speaks to the question posed by Raby and Sheppard [2] when they state, "We have also noted ways in which young climate activists themselves are pushing back against such representations. How can we think about young climate activists in different ways, outside of dominant discourses of childhood, a divisive focus on generation, and individual, privileged girl heroes?"…”

“…There is a need for more scholarly work on understanding agency in youth climate activism, particularly in the global South. However, except for a few studies that have touched on agency and youth climate activism [1,2,9] or call on us to strengthen and (re) conceptualise agency, for example, in everyday activism [10,11], how African women youth climate activists mobilise and deploy agency in interactions has been chiefly neglected [1,2]. In response to this, this paper is driven by three questions: How is Vanessa Nakate undermined in online and social media interactions?…”