ABSTRACT
In this chapter we think about how young people learn to make a difference with others, despite dominant narratives that emphasise individualism. We ask, how do we learn to take democratic action with other people? What are the values and ideas that sustain collective action in difficult times? As young citizens take to the streets in school strikes, they are beginning to challenge a political myth that has dominated our thinking in liberal democracies for over three decades: the power of one individual to effect change. While individual citizens taking action is vital, as Greta Thunberg’s own protest action demonstrates, when students collaborate, arranging meetings, making signs, organising protests and sharing events on social media, they are also rediscovering the power of collective action or ‘social agency’ where ‘agency’ is defined as a citizen’s capacity for developing independent thought (will formation) and the capability to freely choose to act on those ideas (volition). This chapter considers how collective agency can sustain student activism in precarious times, given the burden of future debt and insecurity, helping young citizens move beyond shock and crisis framings, drawing on the legacy of Indigenous, feminist, civil rights and other movements to sustain their activism.
