‘The outraged young’: young Europeans, civic engagement and the new media in a time of crisis

Abstract

Public involvement in traditional political institutions has declined significantly over the past few decades, leading to what some have seen as a crisis in citizenship. This trend is most striking amongst young people, who have become increasingly alienated from mainstream electoral politics in Europe. Nevertheless, there is overwhelming evidence to show that younger citizens are not apathetic about ‘politics’ – they have their own views and engage in democracy in a wide variety of ways that seem relevant to their everyday lives. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, young Europeans have borne the brunt of austerity in public spending: from spiralling youth unemployment, to cuts in youth services, to increased university tuition fees. In this context, the rise and proliferation of youth protest in Europe is hardly surprising. Indeed, youth activism has become a major feature of the European political landscape: from mass demonstrations of the ‘outraged young’ against political corruption and youth unemployment, to the Occupy movement against the excesses of global capitalism, to the emergence of new political parties. This article examines the role that the new media has played in the development of these protest movements across the continent. It argues that ‘digitally networked action’ has enabled a ‘quickening’ of youth participation – an intensification of political participation amongst young, highly educated citizens in search of a mouthpiece for their ‘indignation’.

Keywords:

• politics
• young people
• social movements

Notes on contributor

James Sloam is senior lecturer in Politics at Royal Holloway, University of London, where he is also co-director of the Centre for European Politics. His recent research has focused on the civic and political engagement of young people in Europe and the United States. He guest-edited a special issue of Parliamentary Affairs on ‘Youth, Citizenship and Politics’ in 2012, and has more recently published work on the changing nature of youth participation in Comparative Political Studies (2012) and West European Politics (2013). He is also the co-convenor of the Political Studies Association specialist group on young people's politics. [email: [email protected]]

Notes

1. The emergence of self-reflexive forms of participation was evident long before the recent financial crisis began in 2007 and 2008 (Giddens, 1991). Norris (2002), for example, charts the decline in participation in electoral politics alongside the rebirth of political engagement in issue-based forms of activism (e.g. the environmental movement) since the 1970s.

2. In Portugal, the dire economic situation led to the acceptance of an EU/IMF financial bailout (of Euros 78 billion) in May 2011 under the condition of further austerity. Spain did not accept a financial bailout – under similar terms – until 2012 (a Euros 100 billion bailout for Spanish banks), but large public spending cuts had already been put in place by 2011.

3. Another recent example of youth protest in Spain was the exposure of the Aznar Government's manipulation of the facts (by thousands of young Spaniards on their mobile phones) regarding the Madrid train bombings of 11 March 2004 for political purposes. This directly contributed to the fall of the Conservative Government in national elections a few days later.

4. There was a conspicuous lack of mass demonstrations in Portugal between the Carnation Revolution in 1974 and the protests that followed the global financial crisis.

5. The 15 May demonstrations were preceded by several smaller demonstrations, including a demonstration in Madrid on 7 April by the student group Youth Without a Future (‘Juventud Sin Futuro’).

6. For example, one of the Monti Government's first measures was to freeze recruitment in the public sector.

7. Through it social policies – in particular the state-subsides for employment during this period – the German Government, thus, managed to forestall significant increases in unemployment.

8. The network also extended to a number of cities outside Italy with large Italian communities, including a large Meetup group in Washington, DC.

9. One such public event was Grillo's swim from Calabria to Sicily in the run-up to the Sicilian election in 2012. These elections proved to be an important success, as the 5SM candidate for the regional presidency achieved and an impressive 15% of the vote.

10. The German Pirate Party again seemed to be on the right side of the public debate regarding the publishing of leaked US intelligence documents through Wikileaks (from April 2011), unequivocally supporting the position of the organisation and its founder, Julian Assange.

11. German public opinion was generally supportive of Edward Snowden, so the Piratenpartei's position – unlike the two main parties – had clear public backing.

12. Grillo was not afraid to exert his authority over party representatives. For example, Bologna city councillor, Frederica Salsi, was publicly condemned by Grillo (on his blog) for holding a TV interview. This went against Grillo's own position on non-engagement with the established media (although the rules for 5SM representatives had been far from clear) (Bartlett et al., 2013).

13. Indeed, Grillo supporters have a particular distrust for traditional political and social institutions, including politicians, political parties and big business, but also the Church and trade unions (Bartlett et al., 2013, p. 40).