Stuck between the modern and the terrestrial: the indignation of the youth for climate movement

Abstract

The dramatic impacts of climate change have pushed thousands of young activists to shout out their indignation. These mobilizations have become the symbol of our 'tipping era': a clash of worlds between attachments to modernity and attempts to become 'terrestrial' (Latour, 2018) to stay within ecological boundaries. In this field, there has been an increasing body of theoretical work but empirical research is still in its infancy, providing little evidence of this ongoing struggle and what we can learn from the young activists' indignation. This article responds to this gap by exploring the case of Youth for Climate (YfC), the Belgian branch of the Fridays for Future movement. In particular, I show how their indignation, expressed in a narrative form, is pivotal to understand the competition between the modern and the terrestrial imaginary within the movement. Based on survey data, participant observations and focus groups, I conduct a two-level analysis. First, I find that the YfC indignation produces three interrelated stories: of unworthy politics, economic abuse and human survival. Second, I reveal how the affectivity of these stories articulates the competition between the modern and the terrestrial imaginary: from hope in the existing political institutions which anchors them in the modern imaginary, to compassion and fear which open a more terrestrial imaginary of collapse. Together, rather than mere competition, these stories reveal an ongoing oscillation and intersection between the modern and the terrestrial.

The existential risk space of climate change

“…In particular, the climate activists from "Fridays For Future" to "Extinction Rebellion" refer to the existential dimension, perceiving climate change as a threat to their future. The empirical research on this movement is still in its infancy (Fisher 2019;Knops 2021) but some survey-based studies suggest that participation of young people in climate strikes is related to risk perception (Brügger et al 2020;Misch et al 2021), in line with earlier studies (Wang et al 2018). The youth movement has identified climate change as the greatest existential threat to the Earth and to human beings, and they consider this threat as a moral element of their narrative (Han and Ahn 2020).…”

“…However, the thinking and theoretical fundaments underlying the narratives of the climate movement differ from the scientific understanding of climate risk. Recent empirical and theoretical research on the youth climate movement identified narratives of vernacular eschatology and postapocalyptics where temporality and imaginaries of collapse play an important role (Knops 2021 ; Friberg 2022 ). The term existential thus refers more to the need of a fundamental change which is also reflected by the constant critique of capitalism by the climate movement, and the request of drastic measures in line with changes in societal structures and economy, illustrated by the well-known slogan “system change not climate change” (SCNCC 2021 ).…”

Communicating the Biodiversity Crisis: From “Warnings” to Positive Engagement

“…Negative emotions also play a vital role in the messages communicated by many environmental movements. For example, activists at Youth for Climate express indignation by invoking younger generations as victims of political procrastination and by framing perceived economic injustices in moral terms by emphasizing inequalities and overconsumption (Knops, 2021). Extinction Rebellion, an international movement, campaigns for radical change and encourages activist participation by openly communicating fears about the future of the planet (Furlong & Vignoles, 2021; Slaven & Heydon, 2020).…”

Coping With Turbulence: EU Negotiations on the 2030 and 2050 Climate Targets

“…(Von der Leyen, 2019, p. 5) Hence, the Green Deal was at least partly a response to one of the main political messages of the European parliamentary elections of April 2019, in which Green parties in large Western member states significantly increased their support by campaigning on a platform that focused on climate action (Mudde, 2019). Most significantly, the Green Deal was inspired by the emergence and surging popularity of youth grassroots movements such as Fridays for Future and Youth Strike for Climate (Knops, 2021). The rise of Fridays for Future and Youth Strike for Climate was an important source of environmental turbulence because they constituted unprecedented, transboundary civil society movements that called for radical governance responses to climate change across numerous policy areas.…”