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Encyclopedia of Adolescence pp 69–76Cite as

Activism

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Overview

Youth activism is a form of political engagement in which young people identify common interests, mobilize their peers, and work collectively to make their voices heard in the public square. Research on youth activism is interdisciplinary, emerging out of scholarship on youth development, civic engagement, cultural studies, and social movements. Youth activism is an important domain of research for two broad reasons. First, youth activists defy societal stereotypes about teenagers, such as that they are self-involved, impulsive, or unprepared for participation in mature community activities. Understanding youth’s accomplishments in activism can challenge and expand conventional notions about adolescence as a developmental stage. Second, understanding youth activism as a developmental contextis important, particularly for youth who feel marginalized from their schools or communities. Settings that support youth activism exemplify principles of learning that are relevant to...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309-0249, USA

    Ben Kirshner

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  1. Ben Kirshner
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Correspondence to Ben Kirshner .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Roger J. R. Levesque

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Kirshner, B. (2018). Activism. In: Levesque, R.J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33228-4_68

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