Abstract
Many of the economic trends we have discussed in our previous chapters are also entwined with political change, of which Brexit and the election of US President Donald Trump are two of the most recent and most dramatic examples. This change is adding to the destabilisation of political orthodoxies in ways that have immediate implications for the mobility and security of many young people and that exacerbate the growing distance between young people and political representatives that we have explored in our previous book (Walsh and Black 2018b). The emergence of post-truth politics is further adding to this destabilisation, unsettling the very foundations of public discourse and the ability of governments (and citizens) to respond to pressing changes. It is also fostering a complex environment of hyperbole which brings into sharp focus the role of affect in contemporary politics and young people’s response to them.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alteri, L., Leccardi, C., & Raffini, L. (2017). Youth and the reinvention of politics. New forms of participation in the age of individualization and presentification. Partecipazione e Conflitto, 9(3), 717–747. https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v9i3p717.
Amnå, E., & Ekman, J. (2014). Standby citizens: Diverse faces of political passivity. European Political Science Review, 6(2), 261–281. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414012453441.
Andersson, E. (2015). Situational political socialization: A normative approach to young people’s adoption and acquisition of political preferences and skills. Journal of Youth Studies, 18(8), 967–983. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2015.1020926.
Banaji, S., & Mejias, S. (2017, June 27). Story of a vote unforetold: Young people, youth activism and the UK general election. Polis. Retrieved 5 July 2017, from http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/polis/2017/06/27/story-of-a-vote-unforetold-young-people-youth-activism-and-the-uk-general-election/.
Birch, S. (2016). Our new voters: Brexit, political mobilisation and the emerging electoral cleavage. Juncture, 23(2), 107–110. https://doi.org/10.1111/newe.12003.
Brooks, R., Byford, K., & Sela, K. (2015). The changing role of students’ unions within contemporary higher education. Journal of Education Policy, 30(2), 165–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2014.924562.
Cammaerts, B., Bruter, M., Banaji, S., Harrison, S., & Anstead, N. (2014). The myth of youth apathy: Young Europeans’ critical attitudes toward democratic life. American Behavioral Scientist, 58(5), 645–664. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764213515992.
Castle, S. (2016, June 6). Choosing ‘Brexit’ could leave the Kingdom less united. New York Times. Retrieved July 7, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/18/world/europe/britain-referendum-european-union-brexit.html?_r=0.
Catholic News Agency. (2018, May 22). 125,000 additional Irish register to vote on abortion referendum. Crux. Retrieved May 30, 2018, from https://cruxnow.com/church-in-uk-and-ireland/2018/05/22/125000-additional-irish-register-to-vote-on-abortion-referendum/.
Coe, A.-B., Wiklund, M., Uttjek, M., & Nygren, L. (2016). Youth politics as multiple processes: How teenagers construct political action in Sweden. Journal of Youth Studies, 19(10), 1321–1337. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2016.1166191.
EBU. (n.d.). Generation what? Young people and optimism: A pan-European view. Geneva: EBU.
Enfield, N. (2017, November 17). We’re in a post-truth world with eroding trust and accountability. It can’t end well. The Guardian. Retrieved November 19, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/17/were-in-a-post-truth-world-with-eroding-trust-and-accountability-it-cant-end-well.
Erlanger, S. (2016, November 10). ‘Brexit’ proved to be sign of things to come in U.S. New York Times. Retrieved November 15, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/world/europe/for-us-brexit-was-a-sign-of-things-to-come.html.
Farthing, R. (2010). The politics of youthful antipolitics: Representing the ‘issue’ of youth participation in politics. Journal of Youth Studies, 13(2), 181–195. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676260903233696.
Giuffrida, A. (2018, February 27). ‘There is no long-term vision’: young Italians lose faith in politics. The Guardian. Retrieved March 3, 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/27/there-is-no-long-term-vision-young-italians-lose-faith-in-politics?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other.
Gotlieb, M. R., & Thorson, K. (2017). Connected political consumers: Transforming personalized politics among youth into broader repertoires of action. Journal of Youth Studies, 20(8), 1044–1061. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2017.1305101.
Hanson, F. (2012). The Lowy Institute Poll 2012. Australia and New Zealand in the World: Public Opinion and Foreign Policy. Retrieved December 3, 2017, from https://archive.lowyinstitute.org/publications/lowy-institute-poll-2012-public-opinion-and-foreign-policy.
Henn, M., & Foard, N. (2014). Social differentiation in young people’s political participation: The impact of social and educational factors on youth political engagement in Britain. Journal of Youth Studies, 17(3), 360–380. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2013.830704.
Henn, M., & Oldfield, B. (2016). Cajoling or coercing: Would electoral engineering resolve the young citizen–state disconnect? Journal of Youth Studies, 19(9), 1259–1280. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2016.1154935.
Henn, M., Oldfield, B., & Hart, J. (2017). Postmaterialism and young people’s political participation in a time of austerity. The British Journal of Sociology, 69(3), 712–737. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12309.
Ipsos (2016). Is the system broken? International views. IPSOS Game Changers December 2016. Retrieved October 11, 2018, from https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/migrations/en-uk/files/Assets/Docs/Polls/global-advisor-political-uncertainty-dec-2016-slides.pdf.
Ipsos. (2017). Ipsos 2017 Global Trends: Fragmentation, cohesion and uncertainty. Retrieved October 11, 2018, from https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/2017-07/Ipsos%20Global%20Trends%202017%20report.pdf.
Ipsos. (2018). Goalkeepers global youth outlook poll. Retrieved September 27, 2018, from https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2018-09/gates_ipsos_topline_report_09_24_2018.pdf.
International Youth Foundation [IYF]. (2017). 2017 global youth wellbeing index. Retrieved March 3, 2018, from https://www.iyfnet.org/library/2017-global-youth-wellbeing-index.
Kovacic, M., & Dolenec, D. (2018). Youth participation in eastern Europe in the age of austerity. In S. Pickard & J. Bessant (Eds.), Young people re-generating politics in times of crises (pp. 375–394). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Martelli, A. (2013). The debate on young people and participatory citizenship. Questions and research prospects. International Review of Sociology, 23(2), 421–437.
Martin, A. (2014). Political engagement among the young in Australia. Papers on Parliament, 60. Retrieved November 19, 2017, from http://www.aph.gov.au/sitecore/content/Home/About_Parliament/Senate/Powers_practice_n_procedures/pops/pop60/c03.
McLeod, J. (2016). Memory, affective practice and teacher narratives: Researching emotion in oral histories of educational and personal change. In M. Zembylas & P. A. Schutz (Eds.), Methodological advances in research on emotion and education (pp. 273–284). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Monticelli, L., & Bassoli, M. (2017). Precarious voices? Types of “political citizens” and repertoires of action among European youth. Partecipazione e Conflitto, 9(3), 824–856. https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v9i3p824.
New York Times. (2016, November 8). Election 2016: Exit polls. New York Times. Retrieved November 28, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/08/us/politics/election-exit-polls.html?_r=1.
Newman, J. (2015, June 3). Austerity, aspiration and the politics of hope. Compass. Retrieved February 23, 2017, from http://www.compassonline.org.uk/austerity-aspiration-and-the-politics-of-hope/.
O’Carroll, L., & Baker, S. (2018, May 21). Irish abortion referendum: voters on both sides prepare to head home. The Guardian. Retrieved May 31, 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/21/irish-abortion-referendum-expats-both-sides-head-home-vote.
Oliver, A. (2017a). The Lowy Institute poll 2017: Understanding Australian attitudes to the world. Retrieved March 1, 2018, from https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/2017-lowy-institute-poll.
Oliver, A. (2017b). Same-sex marriage survey: Gen Y got involved and the pollsters got it right. Retrieved March 1, 2018, from https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/same-sex-marriage-survey-gen-y-got-involved-and-pollsters-got-it-right.
Pickard, S. (2018). Momentum and the movementist ‘Corbynistas’: Young people regenerating the labour party in Britain. In S. Pickard & J. Bessant (Eds.), Young people re-generating politics in times of crises (pp. 115–137). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Pickard, S., & Bessant, J. (2018). Introduction. In S. Pickard & J. Bessant (Eds.), Young people re-generating politics in times of crises (pp. 1–17). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Pilkington, H., & Pollock, G. (2015). ‘Politics are bollocks’: Youth, politics and activism in contemporary Europe. The Sociological Review, 63(2_suppl), 1–35.
Reynolds, E. (2017, October 3). Women and youth drive same-sex marriage vote. news.com.au. Retrieved October 7, 2017, from http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/gay-marriage/women-and-youth-drive-samesex-marriage-vote/news-story/ca2d75afe82aacd644a123c4a2a4edfe.
Rheingans, R., & Hollands, R. (2013). ‘There is no alternative?’: Challenging dominant understandings of youth politics in late modernity through a case study of the 2010 UK student occupation movement. Journal of Youth Studies, 16(4), 546–564. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2012.733811.
Seippel, Ø., & Strandbu, Å. (2017). Populist political right opinions and political trust among Norwegian youth. Journal of Youth Studies, 20(4), 415–429. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2016.1241863.
Shuster, S. (2016, June 26). The U.K.’s old decided for the young in the Brexit vote. Time Magazine. Retrieved November 28 2016, from http://time.com/4381878/brexit-generation-gap-older-younger-voters/.
Sloam, J. (2016). Diversity and voice: The political participation of young people in the European Union. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 18(3), 521–537. https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148116647176.
Soler-i-Martí, R. (2015). Youth political involvement update: Measuring the role of cause-oriented political interest in young people’s activism. Journal of Youth Studies, 18(3), 396–416. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2014.963538.
Stefanou, E. (2016, June 25). ‘What do young people think about Brexit?’. The Guardian. Retrieved December 3, 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/video/2016/jun/24/what-do-young-people-think-about-brexit-video.
Stone, J. (2017, December 17). Brexit lies: The demonstrably false claims of the EU referendum campaign. The Independent 2017. Retrieved March 2, 2018, from https://www.independent.co.uk/infact/brexit-second-referendum-false-claims-eu-referendum-campaign-lies-fake-news-a8113381.html.
Sukarieh, M., & Tannock, S. (2014). Youth rising?: The politics of youth in the global economy. New York: Routledge.
Tilly, C. (2004). Contention and democracy in Europe, 1650–2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Walsh, L., & Black, R. (2018a). Off the radar democracy: young people’s alternate acts of citizenship in Australia. In S. Pickard & J. Bessant (Eds.), Youth politics in crisis: New forms of political participation in the austerity era (pp. 217–232). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Walsh, L., & Black, R. (2018b). Rethinking youth citizenship after the age of entitlement. London: Bloomsbury.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Black, R., Walsh, L. (2019). Making the Future: Homo Promptus and the Political. In: Imagining Youth Futures. Perspectives on Children and Young People, vol 9. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6760-1_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6760-1_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-6759-5
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-6760-1
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)