Abstract
The present study combines a theoretical analysis of youth protest as a special social phenomenon and the results of an empirical study. Based on the empirical study conducted by the authors in the Moscow State University of Technology and Management (First Cossack University), an analysis of the protest activity of youth (students) in the 2010s is conducted. The authors rely on a set of methodological approaches and methods of analysis: conceptual, behaviorist, and socio-cultural approaches, as well as the network approach aimed at understanding the basic constructs of the digital age and digital communications as a new social reality. The authors develop the method of discourse analysis to demonstrate the protest activism being contingent on the rapidly changing conditions. The modern definition of protest is analyzed. The term protestivity is introduced and its heuristic value is substantiated. The distinction between civic activism and protestivity is drawn. The authors explore the preconditions for the formation of protest: youth lumpenization, deprivation (inconsistency between the increased social expectations of young people and the real possibilities for their realization). The manifestations of youth protestivity in the modern conditions increasingly acquiring the structure of network interaction are studied. It is concluded that the repertoire of youth protestivity in a digital society is modifying. The article demonstrates that positive (constructive) forms of protest activity contribute to the formation of a conventional form of interaction between youth and authorities. Involvement in positive forms of activism stops the natural potential of youth protest. The future largely depends on what status the authorities assign to youth.
Highlights
Young people dramatically react to emotional activators and reflect on the challenges and problems of society expressing their dissatisfaction through various mechanisms including the virtual and game formats
We rely on a set of methodological approaches and methods of analysis [8]: the conceptual approach that begins with the development of the research concept and includes its key features; the behaviorist approach that manifests in the study of activism, protestivity, and other types of behavior of youth as the action of subjects who determine their life position and strategy independently; the sociocultural approach focuses our attention on the development of a format of youth activism within the conventional dialogue culture accounting for the sociocultural and value-ethical nature of the activators of behavior; the network approach focusing on understanding the fundamental constructs of the digital age and digital communication as the new social reality
The total percentage of those who are to varying degrees willing to participate in signing collective protest appeals and petitions is 30.8%; the total percentage of people to varying degrees willing to participate in thematic concerts, exhibitions, performances, installations, and flash mobs is 47.1%
Summary
Young people dramatically react to emotional activators and reflect on the challenges and problems of society expressing their dissatisfaction through various mechanisms including the virtual and game formats. Student youth protest activity has to be examined as a negative and destructive process disturbing social and political stability and as a way of actualization of a pressing social issue. We are examining the problem of protest activity in the 2010s. Over this decade, protest activity has changed both in the form (from street rallies to network communications) and intensity (waves of rise and fall) [1]. Our initial thesis is the distinction between civic activism and protest activity which, in turn, can only be viewed negatively
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