This paper presents the findings from the YECEI research project (Young Entrepreneurs of Creative Environmental Imagery) led jointly by the Universities of Pavia, Milano-Bicocca and Milano Statale. This project explores the youth-led organizational and individual production of fictional and political writings about climate and social imaginaries. Using Castoriadis and Taylor’s concepts of social imaginaries (Castoriadis, 1987, 1997; Taylor, 2005), this presentation explores how young climate activists and their organisations formulate different social imaginaries through their discourses on climate change. As noticed by Marlon et al (2019), regarding climate breakdowns and public beliefs, there is a lack of discourses on what may promote hope and fuel activism. Imagination remains crucial to allow activists to envision a model of society beyond the current one (De Maggio, 2023; Herfort et al., 2023). Imaginaries, however, remain tied to specific interests, meaning that they can also enter in conflict with other imaginaries arising from different values (Colombo and Rebughini, forthcoming). This research particularly focuses on eliciting the tensions and conflicts between different types of imaginaries formulated by young people, such as young climate activists and their organisations.
Drawing on a mixed methods approach, combining critical document analysis and interviews, we mobilise Castoriadis and Taylor’s concepts of social imaginaries to examine how young climate activists formulate different social imaginaries through their public discourses, how alternative imaginaries are represented in these discourses, what type of values they enact (e.g., justice, care for the world, etc), and whether these discourses can fuel motivation for undertaking political action. Findings rely on the combined analysis of 60-80 public discourses interviews, articles, social media posts, and other types of divulgatory documents produced by 14 Italian-based youth activist movements (such as Friday for Future, Extinction Rebellion, Ultima Generazione, etc), as well as interviews with individual activists and young people (x40-50).
