ABSTRACT

Pandemic conditions have affected social movement activity in various ways. In this article, we explore how young Cypriot climate activists, associated with the global Fridays for Future movement, attempt to integrate pandemic conditions in their mobilizing tactics, as well as how such conditions affect their collective youth agency. We first look into the strategic antagonistic framings they develop to counter dominant discourses of the pandemic as an unprecedented crisis and explore how these are informed by their understandings of, and emotions on, climate change as an effect of capitalism and overconsumption and as a type of ‘slow pandemic’. We argue that by extending climate change crisis discourse to encompass the cause of the pandemic, young activists assert temporality as continuity, rather than rupture, and challenge the distinction between the exceptional and the everyday on which Emergency governance is based on. By doing this, they unsettle adult hegemonic discourses on temporality, emergency and crisis that lead to an uneven world. Secondly, we reflect on the impact of Covid-19 on non-institutional youth activism by exploring the challenges these activists face to their sustenance and reproduction, given that access to public space, as we claim, is crucial for teenagers in developing the necessary relationality that is key for the maintenance of their social movement activity. We argue that youth movements emerge and operate within particular conditions which are currently under threat given the distinct mechanisms of governing populations engineered during Covid-19.

摘要

并挑战紧急治理所依据的例外与日常之间的区别。通过这样做，他们动摇了关于时间性、紧急性和危机的成人霸权话语，这些话语导致了一个不平衡的世界。其次，我们通过探讨这些积极分子在维持生计和繁殖方面面临的挑战来反思 Covid-19 对非机构青年行动主义的影响，因为正如我们所声称的，进入公共空间对于青少年发展必要的关系至关重要这是维持他们的社会运动活动的关键。我们认为，鉴于 Covid-19 期间设计的管理人口的独特机制，青年运动在当前受到威胁的特定条件下出现和运作。通过这样做，他们动摇了关于时间性、紧急性和危机的成人霸权话语，这些话语导致了一个不平衡的世界。其次，我们通过探讨这些积极分子在维持生计和繁殖方面面临的挑战来反思 Covid-19 对非机构青年行动主义的影响，因为正如我们所声称的，进入公共空间对于青少年发展必要的关系至关重要这是维持他们的社会运动活动的关键。我们认为，鉴于 Covid-19 期间设计的管理人口的独特机制，青年运动在当前受到威胁的特定条件下出现和运作。通过这样做，他们动摇了关于时间性、紧急性和危机的成人霸权话语，这些话语导致了一个不平衡的世界。其次，我们通过探讨这些积极分子在维持生计和繁殖方面面临的挑战来反思 Covid-19 对非机构青年行动主义的影响，因为正如我们所声称的，进入公共空间对于青少年发展必要的关系至关重要这是维持他们的社会运动活动的关键。我们认为，鉴于 Covid-19 期间设计的管理人口的独特机制，青年运动在当前受到威胁的特定条件下出现和运作。我们通过探讨这些活动家在维持生计和繁殖方面面临的挑战来反思 Covid-19 对非机构青年活动的影响，因为正如我们声称的那样，进入公共空间对于青少年发展必要的关系至关重要，即维持其社会运动活动的关键。我们认为，鉴于 Covid-19 期间设计的管理人口的独特机制，青年运动在当前受到威胁的特定条件下出现和运作。我们通过探讨这些活动家在维持生计和繁殖方面面临的挑战来反思 Covid-19 对非机构青年活动的影响，因为正如我们声称的那样，进入公共空间对于青少年发展必要的关系至关重要，即维持其社会运动活动的关键。我们认为，鉴于 Covid-19 期间设计的管理人口的独特机制，青年运动在当前受到威胁的特定条件下出现和运作。