Participation On and Beyond the Boundaries: Brazilian Youth Activism in Radical Right Movements

Abstract

Abstract Drawing on the analysis of biographical interviews with Brazilian activists, this article explores youth activism in radical right movements as a challenge to and indicator of 21st-century democratic transformation through the lens of youth participation studies. In recognition of the symbolic boundaries that institutionalized discourses of democratic youth participation produce, participation in radical right movements is analysed as a case of ‘liminal participation’. The article begins with a brief overview of the literature on youth participation in radical right movements in Brazil and Europe, with a focus on how the concept of ‘liminal participation’ can be used to analyse it. We then reconstruct four biographies and discuss how liminality emerges as a strategy and a negotiation status, related to processes of youth politicization. Finally, the findings are related to a broader reflection on democracy and participation in a society of risks in which conflict and antagonism play a central role.