Handbook On Youth Activism

This dynamic Handbook offers state-of-the-art analysis of the new generation of youth activists who are demanding change. Bringing together eminent scholars, rising academic stars and youth activists, this Handbook provides a unique and essential insight into the power of youth activism today.

This resource provides a wide-ranging survey of the past, present, and future of youth activism in the USA and around the world. The work places a special focus on prominent youth activists, their organizations, and the causes to which they are determined to make change, including civil rights, environmental issues such as climate change, gender and LGBTQ+ rights, and US military actions and financial investments to which they are opposed. How has youth activism changed over the decades? What are the keys to fostering civic engagement among young people? What tools do young people use now to advance political causes important to them? What impact are they having on political and legal struggles over climate change, immigration, and civil rights? This all-in-one resource answers all those questions and more.

Activists under 30: Global Youth, Social Justice, and Good Work is a unique book, written about youth, written by youth, celebrating youth activism in the 21st Century. A collaborative book joining the voices of youth, teachers, and scholars highlighting achievements and on-going work of a growing population of young women and men who insist on making a difference.

Kids want to do it. Parents want their kids to do it. Schools often require kids to do it. So do it: Do something and change the world. And here’s how, in a fist-in-the-air book for every young activist. DoSomething.org knows exactly how to reach kids. The largest Internet-based teen service organization, it supports 750,000 projects, receiving 15 million visitors a month, and, for the first time ever, broadcasting a Do Something Awards show on VH1. Do Something! takes aim at the next generation of do-gooders. Written in a lively, in-your-face style, designed to be edgy and hip, it’s the kind of interactive, educational book every parent will feel good about giving because it shows kids how to get involved, in language they understand. It’s an idea-to-execution guide. Quizzes help readers pinpoint their “thing”—a cause that fires them up. Then come the tools that show how to get something done, whether it’s making a poster, raising money, sending around a petition, or enlisting friends. There are 33 action plans, touching on areas such as the environment, human rights, poverty, animal welfare, education, disaster relief—plus worksheets, facts, and outlines to help socially conscious kids create their own projects, and, for inspiration, profiles of DoSomething.org grant winners. Additionally, DoSomething.org is setting up a separate website for this book’s readers. About DoSomething.org: DoSomething.org is one of the largest organizations in the US that helps young people rock causes they care about. A driving force in creating a culture of volunteerism, DoSomething.org is on track to activate two million young people in 2011. By leveraging the web, television, mobile, and pop culture, DoSomething.org inspires, empowers and celebrates a generation of doers: teenagers who recognize the need to do something, believe in their ability to get it done, and then take action. Plug in at www.DoSomething.org.

Provides a guide on how to be a youth activist as well as an overview of the political priorities of Americans born after 1975.

A cutting-edge study showcases the emergence of contemporary youth activism in the United States, its benefits to young people, its role in strengthening society, and its powerful social justice implications. At a time when youth are too often dismissed as either empowered consumers or disempowered deviants, it is vital to understand how these young people are pushing back, challenging such constructions, and advancing new possibilities for their institutions and themselves. This book examines the latest developments in the field of contemporary youth activism (CYA) and documents the myriad ways in which youth activists are effecting social change, even as they experience personal change. By taking public, political action on a range of intersecting issues, youth activists are shifting their own developmental pathways, shaping public policy, and shaking up traditional paradigms. Section one of the book offers a historical perspective on youth activism in the United States, followed by a discussion of contemporary examples of CYA for social justice. The second and third sections analyze the individual, institutional, and ideological effects of CYA, arguing that youth activism works to promote change at three levels: self, systems, and in the broader society. Readers will come away with a clearer understanding of the many ways in which today's youth activists are working to reimagine and remake American democracy, reawakening the promise of a multi-issue, progressive movement for social justice.

"There is a widespread perception that the foundations of American democracy are dysfunctional and little is likely to emerge from traditional politics that will shift those conditions. Youth are often seen as emblematic of this crisis--frequently represented as uninterested in political life and ill-informed about current-affairs. By Any Media Necessary offers a profoundly different picture of contemporary American youth. Young men and women are tapping into the potential of new forms of communication, such as social media platforms and spreadable videos and memes, seeking to bring about political change--by any media necessary. In a series of case studies covering a diverse range of organizations, networks, and movements--from the Harry Potter Alliance, which fights for human rights in the name of the popular fantasy franchise, to immigration-rights advocates using superheroes to dramatize their struggles--By Any Media Necessary examines the civic imagination at work. Exploring new forms of political activities and identities emerging from the practice of participatory culture, By Any Media Necessary reveals how these shifts in communication have unleashed a new political dynamism in American youth."--Book jacket.