ABSTRACT

Despite the passing in 2015 of UNSCR 2250 on Youth, Peace, and Security, the study of young people’s political agency in conflict, and the possibilities for empowerment and transformative change, remains sparse. This article investigates generative processes of youth political agency in the Syrian war since 2011 and under what conditions conflict has politically empowered/disempowered youth. Drawing on 72 interviews carried out with youth inside the country in the period 2019–2021, the article conducts spatial analysis to assess how the different spaces the conflict has produced inform youth agency. The article finds that the different degrees of agency are mediated by space-specific logics of security, autonomy and control. While some youth have experienced political empowerment, this has been limited to zones of autonomous governance; meanwhile, in regime-held zones, the spatial logic of authoritarian consolidation mediates political disappropriation. The article argues that this divergence has important implications for Syrian youth’s political subjectivities and the emergence of new inequalities that are further compounded by everyday tactics of movement restriction. Given the conflict’s likely denouement, transformative potential appears dim.

摘要

尽管 2015 年通过了关于青年、和平与安全的联合国安理会第 2250 号决议，但对青年在冲突中的政治机构以及赋权和变革的可能性的研究仍然很少。本文调查了 2011 年以来叙利亚战争中青年政治能动性的生成过程，以及冲突在什么条件下赋予了青年政治权力/剥夺了青年权力。基于 2019 年至 2021 年期间对国内青年进行的 72 次采访，本文进行了空间分析，以评估冲突产生的不同空间如何影响青年机构。文章发现，不同程度的代理是由空间特定的安全、自主和控制逻辑调节的。虽然一些青年经历了政治赋权，但这仅限于自治区；同时，在政权控制区，专制巩固的空间逻辑调解了政治侵占。文章认为，这种分歧对叙利亚青年的政治主观性和新的不平等现象的出现具有重要意义，而日常的行动限制策略进一步加剧了这种不平等现象。鉴于冲突可能的结局，变革的潜力显得暗淡。