Section 2: Self-organising, Protest and Activist Movements

Section 2 explores the explicitly political and counter-political activism of young people in Manchester and Frankfurt. It considers protesting and campaigning for social justice and equality, and the ways in which young people self-organise and come together to create new ways of ‘doing politics’ and of living political and social alternatives. The cases explored in this section illustrate a deep connection of young people to political and social change that manifests in different ways. The section sets out how young people push against a political hegemony and for emancipation and change by working towards a new politics, by drawing on older, established non-hegemonic ideologies, and by creating and sharing a space where young people can be free to be together and to live differently. The goals of the young people in the current section – to challenge the hegemonic ‘cultural, moral, and ideological’ oppression of one group over subaltern groups – forms the basis of their work, including developing alternative (counter) ideologies and ways of living, formally and informally.