Factors that influence youth participation in environmental activism

Abstract

The School Strike 4 Climate movement began with 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, protesting for stronger climate action outside Swedish parliament, in 2018. Since then, millions of global students have joined the School Strike, peaking on September 20, 2019, with roughly 4 million protestors worldwide and 300,000 in Australia. Despite sustained and growing support, research investigating how young people come to be involved in such events is still in its infancy. The purpose of this research was to explore factors that influence attendance at - or abstention from - a School Strike 4 Climate event. The School Strike was used as a case study for how pre-voters engage with politics and climate change, providing insights on the barriers and enablers of environmental and political participation for teenagers in Australia. The study used surveys (n=174) and focus groups (4 groups, n=21) with 15-20-year-old Australians to explore social and individual factors impacting protest attendance. Qualitative data was used to investigate prominent themes from the quantitative data, and non-attendees of Strikes were deliberately included as a crucially missing voice in existing research. Results showed that School Strikers were largely motivated by environmental and political factors. Rather than a 'mirror' to participation, abstention followed a stand-alone decision-making process, where schoolwork was typically prioritised above political action. Support from friends and family also strongly correlated with protest attendance. Overall, participants were engaging with climate change as a highly politicised issue, and non-participants faced distinct barriers and decisions that lead to abstention. Inclusion of both Strikers and non-Strikers in this research enabled exploration of the diverse perspectives and independence afforded to young people in the context of climate activism. This thesis highlighted that adult governance of young people's lives can have complex and mixed effects, where parents, teachers or governments can all have enabling, blocking or neutral impacts on youth political engagement. Adult governance also influenced the way in which teenagers saw their climate change education, and how perspectives important to them were rarely reflected in formal schooling. This research contributed an enhanced understanding of enablers and barriers to environmental and political participation for Australian pre-voters, and how their shifting political repertoire is inextricably linked to their engagement with climate change. This insight enables governing adults to better include and consider youth perspectives in climate change and political decision making, ensuring that pathways taken today are aligned with - and accessible for - those that will be in power tomorrow. Show more