Equipping Sociologists and Citizens to Contribute to Public Discussions of the Anthropocene: A Practical Guide to Amplifying Youth Voices

Recognition of the Anthropocene and environmental concerns accompanying it are unsurprisingly evident in the concerns of young Australians about climate change. Until relatively recently, under the previous federal government there was a decade of inaction in relation to the issues and concerns of young people. The author sought to amplify young people’s voices.

Although some disciplines already contribute to public debates, sociology could be better positioned at the centre of debates regarding the conditions of living with and in the Anthropocene. This presentation provides a practical guide to better equip sociologists and citizens to contribute to public and government discussions of the Anthropocene in relation to individual and collective capacities to live together in such an epoch.

Since 2021, the Australian Youth Barometer (Walsh et al., 2024) series surveyed over 2,500 young Australians aged 18-24 and interviewed 150 to highlight the experiences of young people on a wide variety of areas, such as climate anxiety. The series routinely gained significant media engagement (with probable audiences of millions), as well as governments and organisations seeking to improve the lives of young people. This presentation walks through the deliberate strategy to achieve this reach, as well as the methodological limitations of such an approach, such as questions of contested knowledges. Whose knowledge counts? Can lived-experience be captured in the approach outlined above? This presentation traces how forms of knowing in a relational sense are prioritized (by “adults”), with potentially dire consequences to societal change.

Understanding how to better engage publics and inform government can enable sociology to contribute to improved understanding and responses to aspects of young people’s social worlds, such as environmental justice. This presents productive possibilities and new questions when conditions of the Anthropocene are taken seriously; particularly in relation to climate adaptation and its sociological, ontological and practical implications.