Children, Citizenship and Environment: #Schoolstrike Edition by Bronwyn Hayward (review)

Abstract

Book Review: Children, Citizenship and Environment: #Schoolstrike Edition 154 Children, Citizenship and Environment: #Schoolstrike Edition Bronwyn Hayward (2020) London: Routledge, 259 pages $160 (Hardcover), $39.95 (paperback); ISBN: 978-0367429621 $39.95 (ebook); http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003000396 Our planet is now in a new age, the Anthropocene epoch. This threshold has become emblematic for citizens, academics, and politicians to focus not only upon our existing ecological reality but our social realities as well. Our collective next steps to deal with this reality have at times forgotten the voices of children and youth. Not any longer, as argued in Bronwyn Hayward’s book Children, Citizenship and Environment: #Schoolstrike Edition. Children and youth activism for the environment has been reignited by the global School Strike for Climate (SS4C) initiative, asking schools to participate in demonstrations to demand action from political leaders to mitigate climate change and decarbonize our energy industry. This was championed by Swedish youth climate activist Greta Thunberg, who staged a solo protest in August 2018 outside the Swedish parliament, holding a sign that read "Skolstrejk för klimatet" (School strike for climate; Hahn, 2021). While the current #SchoolStrike movement continues to be impactful, the work of children’s environmental activism has been the focus of Bronwyn Hayward’s scholarship well before Greta arrived on the scene. Her research focuses upon the intersection of sustainable development, youth, climate change and citizenship, as demonstrated by her contributions to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and leadership with a global initiative that spans seven cities worldwide titled, Children and Youth in Cities Lifestyle Evaluation Study (CYCLES). In this revised edition of Hayward’s ground-breaking book, Children, Citizenship and Environment, she re-examines how students, teachers, parents, and other activists learn to take effective action to confront the complex realities of climate change and other environmental challenges globally in light of the new #SchoolStrike movement. This edition draws on interviews conducted as part of the CYCLES initiative with young people in New Zealand, and includes new contributions by youth, indigenous peoples, social inclusion activists, researchers and educators, so as to provide a contemporary perspective that reminds us of the importance of youth activism and its social nexus in communities. The book is divided into eight chapters, each providing a comprehensive and succinct overview of important premises for the scholarship, along with updated commentaries gleaned from youth and other concerned citizens, professionals, and activists. Chapter 1 provides the raison d'être for the updated book as predicated on the #SchoolStrike movement. Chapter 2 builds upon the 2012 edition by having a wider discussion of the prospects of children who live in New Zealand, who are now older (ages 12-18) than the previous edition’s participants, and by listening carefully to adolescent discussions about well-being and the decarbonization of Book Review: Children, Citizenship and Environment: #Schoolstrike Edition 155 cities. Importantly, this chapter frames her research findings in the context of Anglo-American neoliberal democracies, and how youth agency has manifested itself in the New Zealand context. One of Hayward’s key research questions is to understand how children and youth can learn new forms of citizenship now to better equip themselves to thrive in the Anthropocene epoch. Chapter 3 begins to address this question by introducing three-part typologies (i.e., FEARS, SMARTS, SEEDS) or models to analyze and interpret the important discussions and interviews conducted. Chapter 4 builds upon the individual agentic model of youth activism, as demonstrated by Greta Thunberg, and highlights the power of and necessity for social and political youth agency, which can transcend an individual narrative. Chapters 5 and 6 turn to the role of formal and informal education in creating outcomes that are not only focused on environmental knowledge and dispositions, but also address actionoriented competencies relevant to local communities with the goal of better addressing the complex socio-ecological intertwining of environmental issues such as climate change. Chapter 7 reflects upon how climate change activism has reignited the discussion regarding “deliberative democracy” and how this can be used to rethink and enact practices involving youth and place, as described by the youth-led Council of the Pacific. Finally, Chapter 8 provides...