Living Global Injustice as Personal Injustice: Young Alter-Activists
No. 86 (2023-10-26)Author(s)
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Geoffrey PleyersFNRS-Université de Louvain, BelgiumORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9949-5047
Abstract
The article focuses on the subjective and individual dimensions of the commitment made by young activists in different contemporary social movements. Two sources are used for its elaboration: case studies in Belgium, France, and Chile; and the analysis of discourses by a young woman from Texas and of Tunisian students mobilized for different causes (ecology, abortion rights, democracy, and social justice). On this basis, we examine how, in this activist way of life, the roots of commitment and the way of “living” social movements are no longer located within organizations or manifestos. Instead, they emerge from the interplay of personal subjectification, seen as the individual’s effort to shape themselves as a person and author of their own life, and the desire to become an active participant in addressing their society’s challenges. In the second section, we highlight three analytical biases that have contributed to an individualistic perspective on this form of activism: (i) the blurring of lines between the processes of subjectification and the (self-) affirmation of an “authentic self,” (ii) the reduction of activism to mere processes of subjectification, when one will combines these processes with another that stives to have an impact on society, and (iii) the consideration that personal dimensions replace the collective dimensions of activism. Far from a selfish individualism or a focus on self-fulfillment, this alter-activist culture encourages the combination of subjectification processes, the desire to become an actor in one’s society, and the personal encounter with others.
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