Protestivity and civic activism in youth: problems and contradictions

Abstract

The present study combines a theoretical analysis of youth protest as a special social phenomenon and the results of an empirical study. Based on the empirical study conducted by the authors in the Moscow State University of Technology and Management (First Cossack University), an analysis of the protest activity of youth (students) in the 2010s is conducted. The authors rely on a set of methodological approaches and methods of analysis: conceptual, behaviorist, and socio-cultural approaches, as well as the network approach aimed at understanding the basic constructs of the digital age and digital communications as a new social reality. The authors develop the method of discourse analysis to demonstrate the protest activism being contingent on the rapidly changing conditions. The modern definition of protest is analyzed. The term protestivity is introduced and its heuristic value is substantiated. The distinction between civic activism and protestivity is drawn. The authors explore the preconditions for the formation of protest: youth lumpenization, deprivation (inconsistency between the increased social expectations of young people and the real possibilities for their realization). The manifestations of youth protestivity in the modern conditions increasingly acquiring the structure of network interaction are studied. It is concluded that the repertoire of youth protestivity in a digital society is modifying. The article demonstrates that positive (constructive) forms of protest activity contribute to the formation of a conventional form of interaction between youth and authorities. Involvement in positive forms of activism stops the natural potential of youth protest. The future largely depends on what status the authorities assign to youth.

Keywords

• youth
• student youth
• civic activism
• protest
• youth protest
• digital society
• destructive and constructive forms of youth protest activity