ABSTRACT
A healthy democracy requires active citizens who care, but individual action alone is insufficient to achieve the far-reaching social and economic transformations we need to avoid chaotic and dangerous climate futures. This chapter considers some of the implications of the school strikes movement for our understanding of the paradox of citizenship as personal responsibility, and the limits of a SMART approach of thin environmentalism. We reflect on the pressures of eco-anxiety experienced by many young people and the joy and possibility of public engagement as critical hope. We reflect on the potential of the SEEDS model of strong ecological citizenship, the ideas of communitarianism and the experiences of self-transcendent values of belonging expressed in Māori, as whanaungatanga (close relationships) and hauora or well-living in community with others, to help support young citizens as they work for a more democratic as well as a more just and sustainable future.
