Youth Climate Activism in India : A thematic literature of an emerging field
(2025) Ethnographies of Energy- Abstract
- What do we know about youth climate activism in India? Given the country’s rich history of environmental activism and the recent increase in youth climate groups, the literature on youth climate activism in India is surprisingly scant. The present review systematically identified eight studies focusing specifically on young people’s climate activism in India post-2019. An in-depth comparative reading revealed three signifi-cant cross-cutting themes: first, the urban, internationally oriented middle-class de-mographic of protesters, characterised as distinct from the ‘environmentalism of the poor’ (Guha and Martinez-Alier, 1997) otherwise dominant in India; second, at the same, an ambition of young protesters to be more aligned with the... (More)
- What do we know about youth climate activism in India? Given the country’s rich history of environmental activism and the recent increase in youth climate groups, the literature on youth climate activism in India is surprisingly scant. The present review systematically identified eight studies focusing specifically on young people’s climate activism in India post-2019. An in-depth comparative reading revealed three signifi-cant cross-cutting themes: first, the urban, internationally oriented middle-class de-mographic of protesters, characterised as distinct from the ‘environmentalism of the poor’ (Guha and Martinez-Alier, 1997) otherwise dominant in India; second, at the same, an ambition of young protesters to be more aligned with the latter; and finally, the slowing down of youth climate movements in India after two governmental crackdown episodes in 2020 and 2021. The review concludes that the literature so far has focused on understanding the peak in youth climate activism in 2019-2020, and that it will be important for future studies to go beyond the ‘Fridays for Future mo-mentum.’ In particular, it will be pertinent to study whether the class solidarity called for by many climate activists materialises, as well as the chilling effects on youth cli-mate activism in India that the mentioned crackdowns continue to have. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/3fd74a9c-7716-4a64-a045-657eeddd0577
- author
- Boje Mortensen, Therese LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- unpublished
- subject
- conference name
- Ethnographies of Energy
- conference location
- Denmark
- conference dates
- 2025-05-19 - 2025-05-21
- project
- Children's right to political participation: the case of rights-based climate activism in India
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 3fd74a9c-7716-4a64-a045-657eeddd0577
- date added to LUP
- 2025-05-23 07:23:55
- date last changed
- 2025-06-02 14:22:22
@misc{3fd74a9c-7716-4a64-a045-657eeddd0577,
abstract = {{What do we know about youth climate activism in India? Given the country’s rich history of environmental activism and the recent increase in youth climate groups, the literature on youth climate activism in India is surprisingly scant. The present review systematically identified eight studies focusing specifically on young people’s climate activism in India post-2019. An in-depth comparative reading revealed three signifi-cant cross-cutting themes: first, the urban, internationally oriented middle-class de-mographic of protesters, characterised as distinct from the ‘environmentalism of the poor’ (Guha and Martinez-Alier, 1997) otherwise dominant in India; second, at the same, an ambition of young protesters to be more aligned with the latter; and finally, the slowing down of youth climate movements in India after two governmental crackdown episodes in 2020 and 2021. The review concludes that the literature so far has focused on understanding the peak in youth climate activism in 2019-2020, and that it will be important for future studies to go beyond the ‘Fridays for Future mo-mentum.’ In particular, it will be pertinent to study whether the class solidarity called for by many climate activists materialises, as well as the chilling effects on youth cli-mate activism in India that the mentioned crackdowns continue to have.}},
author = {{Boje Mortensen, Therese}},
language = {{eng}},
title = {{Youth Climate Activism in India : A thematic literature of an emerging field}},
year = {{2025}},
}