[:en]Rethinking Youth Political Socialization: Teenage Activists Talk Back[:]

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Within this piece of writing the author touches on the roles and responsibilities that adults have when shaping a young person’s civic capabilities and the roles these youths play in socialising as a community in regards to political engagement and how this is underexplored. Findings are based on two qualitative studies from teen activists within North and Latin American, arguing that those teenage activists that are left out have a different way in which they engage with politics. This paper aims to explore and re-think the core tenets of youth civic engagement and elucidate the roles that these youths play in the process of political socialisation. For many observing adults they believe that to achieve a stable global future, the youth have the abilities to secure this reality by taking over and ‘forge the future’ as responsible adults who are engaged politically. Understanding that young individuals can be valuable participants when building a democratic future is causing adults to turn their attention to the youth and working out how best to train, engage and socialise with this age group.

‘The world is shifting and a stable global future is needed.”

Research has consistently emphasised on families being an important figure, playing a significant role in shaping the political orientation of the youth. Schools also have a huge impact on an individual’s social development, teaching them to engage with larger societies, communities and also government organisations, giving them the opportunities to develop civic skills. There is a lot of research behind the engagement of adult-run organisations, such as schools, for the youth, however, there is nothing on how the youth engage in their own political socialisations. It seems that even though these youth activists are in their own right acting on their own not reliant on the help of adult but by peer networking, however, it is still apparent that their politics has been strong influenced by traditional models of adult led political socialisations. As I have seen before, this age group tend to be more cynical and less trusting of adult politics viewing adults as being lazy and unresponsive, leaving this group alienated. This has been a problem for many years and leaves young individuals either ignorant and uninterested of politics or we see them joining extremist activist groups i.e. skinheads, the Animal Liberation Front, Gangsta Rap.

“Address disturbing trends related to youth civic engagement, including a decrease in young people’s interest in political discussion and public issues; their tendency to be more cynical and alienated from formal politics, more materialistic, and less trusting; and a decline in their voter participation rates”

This highlights the importance of a parent’s role in a child’s life as they ultimately have the power to influence their political involvement. Learnt experience and a varied body of information digested from surrounding influences gives young people dimension allowing them to have the foundations to make their own choices both in life and in terms of political socialisation. The findings for this study were collected between 2000-2004 by conducting in-depth interviews with young activists and their parents. Even though this study is dated I found it interesting as a lot of my research into children and the idea of nurturing them at this age to become decent human beings.

“Political socialisation is not something that adults do to adolescents, it is something that youth do for themselves.”

Being condescending to these individuals by telling them how amazing for being an activist only limited them and annoys them. An interview with Josephine and Megan shows this.

Josephine: Like, some people, like we were saying before, adults are so amazed, like, “wow, you are so young and you are doing all this stuff,” and before I was like “thanks” and everything, but I just real- ized . . . that they are congratulating me because they don’t—it is not even in their head that somebody so young could even accomplish something like this.

Megan: They don’t think it is possible.
Josephine: So it’s not like, “oh, good job.”
Megan: It’s actually not a compliment.
Josephine: It’s more like, “what are you doing, I’m so impressed you could even have gotten that far. And you are the only youth, you are the only one who could do it. And all your other friends, they should all be like you. . . .” And I’m like, “no, everybody does that.”

Megan: Yeah, they think we are special.
Josephine: Yeah, we hear stuff that you are so special.

Megan: And we’re like “no, it is normal.”

Treating these individuals like children does not win you popularity. This is something I will need to keep in mind when reaching out to this age group in order to keep them engaged and to trust me.

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