Youth Movements

Abstract

Youth movements are the organized, conscious attempts by young people to bring about or resist societal change. A prominent feature of modern societies, youth movements emerge out of generational tensions and relations and are rooted in specific sociohistorical conditions. Youth movements have taken a variety of forms, including student rebellions, cultural innovations (literary, artistic, music), scientific revolutions, religious reforms, ethnic revolts, nationalist and political generations, and environmental, peace and antiwar movements. Attempts to study the origins and patterns of modern youth movements have focused on two types of generational conflict: (a) intergenerational conflict (involving young people's dissatisfaction with the status quo and the authorization of their contemporaries to work for social and political change), and (b) intragenerational conflict among competing generation units or mobilized youth groups (revolutionary, progressive, moderate, conservative, and reactionary). Historically, most youth movements have formed over issues of citizenship, social discontinuities, and cultural expressiveness. Over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries there have been five identifiable historical generations or extraordinary waves of youth movement activity: Young Europe Generation (1815–48, 1860–90); Post-Victorian Generation (1890–1920); Great Depression Generation (1930–40); the 1960s Generation (1960–70); and the 1980s Generation (1980–90). Youth movements, while eruptive and episodic, have become an effective way for young people to mobilize over new issues that confront their age group and will continue to be a significant force for societal change.