As someone who is unable to engage in traditional forms of politics, I consider myself very political. I join protests, I sign petitions and I am unapologetically vocal about my political beliefs online. So who gets to determine whether young people are (dis)engaged politically? I believe young people like myself are finding innovative ways to engage politically on their own terms through social media.

This blog post will investigate what social factors in young people lives impacts on the ways in which they partake in political activities and explore how young people are actually revolutionising what it means to be politically engaged in contemporary society.

Have young people rejected traditional politics?

Young people have always been used as the ultimate symbol of the potential of the future. The popular Nelson Mandela quote “Children are our greatest treasure, they are the future” is probably very familiar to you as it is a saying used often in contemporary society (Nelson Mandela Childrens Fund, 2015). Whilst being such a crucial component of the future, statistics have indicated that over a third of young people are not registered to vote (Whitehead, 2019). This is an alarming figure when compared to 95% of the over 65s being registered to vote (Whitehead, 2019). This illustrates which age demographic truly holds the key to the future as voting records indicates that a persons age is the strongest indicator on voting behaviour (McDonnell and Curtis, 2019). This was demonstrated during the 2016 EU referendum, the 2017 general election and then again in the 2019 general election (McDonnell and Curtis, 2019).  

The figure above illustrates how each age demographic voted, with the mass majority of young people voting labour and an overwhelming majority of older people voting tory (McDonnell and Curtis, 2019). Research findings even suggest that for every 10 years that an individual ages, their chance of voting conservative significantly increases (McDonnell and Curtis, 2019).  

Despite the fact that young people seem unconcerned about formal politics, many statistical findings have illustrated that young people are not only interested but are also actively participating in other alternative forms on political discourse.

How politics is introduced to the young 

The conversation about young people and political engagement cannot be had without exploring and understanding the disparities in research findings between children of different socio-economic backgrounds. Research has gathered that children of different socio-economic backgrounds had the same interest in politics up until they reached 15 years of age (Janmaat and Hoskins, 2021). So what factors in those children’s lives have shaped their view on society and politics? And is there a correlation between class and political engagement?

The sociological understanding on why young people are disengaged in civic engagement is commonly attributed to education (Janmaat and Hoskins, 2019). Civic engagement refers to

working to make a difference in the civic life of one’s community and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes” (Ehrlich, 2000).

For many children, their introduction to understanding and partaking in politics starts at home, and data shows a nexus between children from disadvantaged backgrounds being less involved in politics (Janmaat and Hoskins, 2019). Experts have argued that this phenomena may be due to the fact that children from disadvantaged background do not have a home environment that is capable of providing education on the complexities of participating in politics. Without the access to political learning young children arrive at schools at different levels of political understanding (Janmaat and Hoskins, 2019). The conceptual framework of cognitive social learning theory argues that humans learn behaviours through interactions with their environment and observing other people (Hoskins, 2022). The lack of political socialisation at home disadvantages children from working class backgrounds as they are more likely to inherit behaviours of political disengagement from their family (Weinberg, 2020).

Citizenship Education 

Citizenship education was introduced into the British educational curriculum in 2002 for children between the ages of 11-16 as a way to address the decline in young people engaging in politics, and to educate them on how to participate in civic and political activities (Pontes, Henn and Griffiths, 2017). If taught correctly, citizenship education can be monumental in improving young peoples political engagement, however it has in many cases widened the gap in political (dis)engagement between children of different economic backgrounds (Pontes, Henn and Griffiths, 2017). Schools that have a higher intake of students from middle class backgrounds tend to include a participation form of citizenship education, which familiarises students to the political system through activities such as mock elections and debates (Janmaat and Hoskins, 2019). The problem with citizenship education is that there is no guideline on how it should be taught so its effectiveness will vary depending on the educational method used. A research article on ‘Youth political (dis)engagement and the need for citizenship education’ found that when comparing students that had completed their GCSE Citizenship Studies and those who did not, there was a clear difference in how they engaged politically (Pontes, Henn and Griffiths, 2017). The data found that the children that studied citizenship in school were more likely than the students who did not take the course to, support the idea of voting, believe that people should be able to protest against governments, and were more likely to vocalise negative point of views about the outcomes of democratic practice (Pontes, Henn and Griffiths, 2017).

What does that mean for the future?

The good news is that although young people are miles behind in representation in the voting polls they are however, leading in other alternative means of active politics. From my own perspective I believe that the youth are finding unique and impactful ways to overcome the challenges they face in partaking in formal politics. Young people feel their voices are silenced by the ‘grey votes’ who make up the majority of the population and the votes. So, they are using social media to voice their opinions and organise politically. In my opinion, this should not only be recognised but it should be celebrated. On a global scale young people have used the internet to create and lead successful protests, campaigns, petitions etc. An example of this is Greta Thunberg, who at the age of 15, led a global campaign to tackle climate change (BBC Monitoring, 2019). As digital natives we have the power to revolutionise what it means to be political and make a difference.

So, my advice to young people is don’t stop. Continue to tweet, post, and trend hashtags that matter to you, because that’s how we will make them hear our voices.

 

References

BBC Monitoring, 2019. The Greta generation – youth activism around the world. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NaqdvSphaU> [Accessed 16 February 2022].

Ehrlich, T., 2000. Civic responsibility and higher education. Phoenix, Ariz: Oryx Press.

Hoskins, B. 2022. Learning Political Engagement [Powerpoint Presentation for SOC020X331S].. University of Roehampton [Accessed 15 February 2022]. 

Janmaat, J. and Hoskins, B., 2019. Voter turnout: how the education system widens the social class gap. [online] IOE LONDON BLOG. Available at: <https://ioelondonblog.wordpress.com/2019/12/10/voter-turnout-how-the-education-system-widens-the-social-class-gap/> [Accessed 15 February 2022].

Janmaat, J. and Hoskins, B., 2021. Young children all find politics engaging but by 15 this has changed – new research shows why. [online] The Conversation. Available at: <https://theconversation.com/young-children-all-find-politics-engaging-but-by-15-this-has-changed-new-research-shows-why-165428> [Accessed 15 February 2022].

McDonnell, A. and Curtis, C., 2019. How Britain voted in the 2019 general election | YouGov. [online] Yougov.co.uk. Available at: <https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/12/17/how-britain-voted-2019-general-election> [Accessed 15 February 2022].

Nelson Mandela Childrens Fund. 2015. Nelson Mandela quotes about children. [online] Available at: <https://www.nelsonmandelachildrensfund.com/news/nelson-mandela-quotes-about-children> [Accessed 15 February 2022].

Pontes, A., Henn, M. and Griffiths, M., 2017. Youth political (dis)engagement and the need for citizenship education: Encouraging young people’s civic and political participation through the curriculum. Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, 14(1), pp.3-21.

Roberts, N. and Danechi, S., 2019. FAQs: Academies and free schools. [online] Available at: <https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn07059/> [Accessed 15 February 2022].

Weinberg, D., 2020. Research Evaluation Report: Politics in schools ‘What exists’ and ‘what works’?. [online] London: Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. Available at: <https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/168298/1/JRRT%20Report%20-%20Politics%20in%20Schools%20-%20Nov%202020.pdf> [Accessed 15 February 2022].

Whitehead, M., 2019. LocalGov.co.uk – Your authority on UK local government – Third of young people not registered to vote, commission warns. [online] Localgov.co.uk. Available at: <https://www.localgov.co.uk/Third-of-young-people-not-registered-to-vote-commission-warns/48552> [Accessed 15 February 2022].