Justice, Action and Institutions: Youth Activism and the Future of Democracies

Thursday, 10 July 2025: 13:00-14:45
Location: ASJE014 (Annex of the Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences)
RC34 Sociology of Youth (host committee)

Language: English

Young people have come to trust core institutions of democratic societies less and less over time. Between 1989 and 2023, the trust that young people extend to governments, parliaments, and political parties, has deteriorated and is now below 20% of all young people (World Values Survey). This session seeks to explore young people's diminishing trust in core democratic institutions over time. What can we contribute from within and beyond the sociology of youth to offer some sense-making for these developments – and what role can the sociology of youth play in helping policy stakeholders to understand the gravity of the situation?
Session Organizers:
Andreas KARSTEN, Youth Policy Labs, Germany, Ada Cora FREYTES FREY, Universidad Nacional Arturo Jauretche / Universidad Nacional de Avellaneda, Argentina and Nicté CASTAÑEDA CAMEY, Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico
Oral Presentations
Mediatization of Student Protests Against Israeli Action in Gaza: A Cross-European Analysis
Rachel BROOKS, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
University Youth Activism in the Hungarian Illiberal Political Context – a Comparison of the 2012-13 Student Network Protests and the 2020 Freeszfe University Blockade
Eszter KIRS, Associate Professor, Hungary
The "Earning and Learning" of Young People's Trust in Institutions: Interrogating Youth Policy
Maurice DEVLIN, National University of Ireland, Ireland
Why Do Youth Participate in Processes They Do Not Trust? Youth Participation and Trust in State Digitalization in Kenya and Turkey
Ali ALTIOK, USA
How to Make the World a Better Place: Qualitative Findings on Young People’s Ideas of Political Participation and Expectations from Politics
Natalia WAECHTER, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Austria; Elena STUHLPFARRER, University of Applied Sciences Joanneum, Austria
Distributed Papers
Unpacking Young Adults’ Voting Preferences: The Role of Neighborhood Trust
Aaron THOMPSON, Arizona State University, USA; Nathan MARTIN, Arizona State University, USA
Birth Cohorts: Do They Contribute to the Explanation of the Activity Rate in Montevideo-Uruguay 1985-2019?
Mariana CABRERA, UDELAR, Uruguay; Veronica FILARDO, Uruguay
Youth and Socio-Political Transformation in the Global South: Case of Sri Lanka
Siri HETTIGE, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
Why Chile’s Voice Echoed Louder: The Impact of Refugee Influx on Transnational Solidarity
Juliette SAETRE SAETRE, Italy
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