GEOG20011 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Tunisian Revolution, Karl Mannheim, Social Revolution
16 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
LECTURE 10: PROTEST, YOUTH AND INEQUALITY
• Protest – form of fighting inequality
• Previous waves of disaffection: 1960’s + 70’s
o 1968: Anti-war, anti-nuclear, civil rights movement, feminist & socialist
movements
• 2010s: new area of political protest – new era of inequality & struggle
o Rising inequalities in the context of economic globalisation
o Environmental instability in context of cc
Social Revolution since 1960’s - present
Doesn’t explain current need for protest – particularly relevant to people ages 18-30
1. Widespread increase in education
2. Increase awareness of citizenship and rights
3. Access to new communication technologies
Barriers to Change
• State not matching investment in education & health – increase in private
• Shortage of secure, well-paid employment
• Patronage often governs access to education, health & infrastructure
• Continued social inequalities: class, gender, race, religions
• Intergenerational inequality: youth worse off than their parents
Widespread Sense of Contradiction among Non-Elites
Consequences:
• Uncertainty and frustration – age-related
o Disaffection, growing educated unemployment
• Social & political action: with new means of connecting local to global
• Global generation of youth activists
2010s YOUTH POLITICAL ACTION
• Increasingly outside traditional forms of organising: less party politics and union politics
• More social movements, NGO activity and everyday action
• Makes use of new communication technologies
• Founded on ideas of rights and citizenship (notions of democracy, social justice and dignity
• Social revolution: may give youth advantages in terms of protest (educated and connected), youth more likely to express
citizenship ideals
• Contradictions of social revolution disproportionately affect young people – therefore more likely to protest
Youth as Political Actors
Negative
• Marx & Engels: youth not effective politically, need to be inside the system to push against
• Kenniston (1960): youth involved in violent, reactionary politics
• World Bank (2010): marginalised youth a threat to the state and democracy
Positive
Karl Mannheim (1930)
• Argues each generation has fresh contact with the world – a generational consciousness
• A generation may have political interests and act politically – esp. youth
• Historical change is powered in part by emergence in society of new generations
• Proximity to childhood: more inventive approach to politics
• Youth may have relative freedom to act – less invested in the status quo
Examples
All countries have experienced 3 key features of social revolution
North Africa
• Arab Spring: Tunisian uprising 2010, spread to Africa/Middle East
• 2011 Anti-Mubarak Protest in Egypt
o Egypt: breakdown of an authoritarian contract, unemployed youth crucial
• Use of social media for political action – Twitter
Lecture Outline
• Introducing political action
and youth activists
• Examples of action: from
highly visible to the
everyday
Document Summary
Examples of action: from highly visible to the everyday. Pre(cid:448)ious (cid:449)a(cid:448)es of disaffe(cid:272)tio(cid:374): (cid:1005)9(cid:1010)(cid:1004)"s + (cid:1011)(cid:1004)"s: 1968: anti-war, anti-nuclear, civil rights movement, feminist & socialist movements. 2010s: new area of political protest new era of inequality & struggle: rising inequalities in the context of economic globalisation, environmental instability in context of cc. Does(cid:374)"t explai(cid:374) (cid:272)urre(cid:374)t (cid:374)eed for protest particularly relevant to people ages 18-30: widespread increase in education. Increase awareness of citizenship and rights: access to new communication technologies. State not matching investment in education & health increase in private. Patronage often governs access to education, health & infrastructure. Intergenerational inequality: youth worse off than their parents. Consequences: uncertainty and frustration age-related, disaffection, growing educated unemployment. Social & political action: with new means of connecting local to global: global generation of youth activists. 2010s youth political action: more social movements, ngo activity and everyday action, makes use of new communication technologies.
