A Theory of Engagement for Fostering Collective Action in Youth Leading Environmental Change

Abstract

Abstract Youth and young adults play an important role in creating a much-needed major cultural shift toward sustainability and environmental justice. Such social change is significantly advanced when youth engage in collective environmental actions that go beyond greening their own personal practice. Although significant progress has been made in recent years in our understanding of how to engage youth in environmental action, what is currently lacking is a clear theory of engagement that unifies this knowledge in one comprehensive and easily accessible framework that is applicable in different cultural contexts. In this article, the authors describe a theory of engagement that was developed, applied, and tested in six countries in the context of the Youth Leading Environmental Change (YLEC) project. The authors describe the development process of the theory of engagement before discussing its core components, which include several facilitating factors of engagement and four active ingredients. A rationa...