Violence and youth voter turnout in sub-saharan Africa

Everyday Violence and Crosscutting Conditions Shaping Social and Political Dimensions of Unsafety in Youth Activism

“…Nonetheless, even though this everyday repression did not have negative physical consequences for the young adults who participated in activism, they described experiencing psychological ones, as Matthies-Boon (2017) found in the aftermath of the Arab Spring protests. Another negative consequence of this everyday repression identified by the young adult activists was deterring young adults’ participation in activism, a result similar to that found by Mac-Ikemenjim (2017), where fear of violence prevented young adults from voting in electoral politics. The political dimensions of unsafety add to this by capturing the everyday challenges of doing politics as a young adult, such as collectively organizing and interacting with adult organizations.…”

“…Research on youth electoral participation is particularly concerned with the negative effects of violence that young adults are exposed to or perpetrate in conjunction with electoral campaigns. Using nationally representative survey data from 20 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Mac-Ikemenjim (2017) found that fear of violence was negatively correlated with young people’s participation in electoral campaigns. Fear of violence was used as a proxy for actual violence, measured with the question: ‘During election campaigns in this country, how much do you personally fear becoming a victim of political intimidation or violence?’ Young adults are also more vulnerable than adults to be recruited into perpetrating electoral violence, as Bob-Milliar (2014) showed in his study among youth activists affiliated to political parties in Ghana.…”

“…Violence enters young adults' activism in different ways, for example, as a deterrent, as an incentive and as a tactic. Existing research addresses these ways from two YOUNG 30 (5) directions: broader societal violence that potentially affects any young adult regardless of whether or not they take part in activism (Ginwright, 2010;Hope et al, 2017;Richards et al, 2016), and specific violence targeted to political action that may affect young adults when they engage in activism (della Porta, 2008a;Mac-Ikemenjim, 2017;Matthies-Boon, 2017;Ting, 2017). However, these two directions are researched separately by distinct fields on different types of youth activism: youth civic engagement, youth protest movements and youth electoral participation.…”