This paper has been prepared for the SAHWA Project within the framework of the Work Package Comparative Transition Experiences, which intends to intend to identify benchmarks for comparison in order to build up scenarios and longer-term outcomes on young people’s lives from the uprisings of 2011.

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Ken Roberts (2015): Youth mobilisations and political generations: young activists in political change movements during and since the twentieth century, Journal of Youth Studies, DOI: 10.1080/13676261.2015.1020937.  

Abstract :

This paper uses political generations theory to examine the main youth mobilisations

during and since the twentieth century: pre-1939 fascist and communist movements;

the student movements of the 1960s and 70s; movements that challenged colonial and

neo-colonial rulers in less developed countries and young people’s involvement in the

revolutions that saw the end of communism in East-Central and South-East Europe in

1989. Conclusions from this review of the past are used in considering the likely

significance of subsequent outbursts of political activism among young people: the

‘colour revolutions’ and other instances of youth mobilisation in former Soviet

republics and other ex-communist countries; the Arab Spring and the series of

movements that have challenged neo-liberalism – Anti-Globalisation, the Indignados

and the Occupy movements. The paper notes that youth mobilisations that have led to

the formation of new political generations that have changed their countries’ politics

then transformed the countries have typically extended over several decades, that

initially youthful leaders have sometimes been middle-aged or older before achieving

political power and that many of their actions on achieving power have been at

variance with their youthful ideals. In conclusion, it is argued that it is still too early to

tell whether any of the recent youth mobilisations signal the formation of new political

generations.