The weight of emotions: exploring how young activists feel about their identity, agency and political participation

This article explores young people’s emotional associations with activism in relation to their social identity, sense of agency and activist participation. Focusing on three activist topics -climate change, anti-racism, feminism and LGBTQ rights - the objective is to analyse emotional nuances both within and across these. Building on sociopolitical development theory, emotions affect the sense of (in)justice and participation in activism and are also central to how young people view their own agency. The focus group research in the United Kingdom showed that different emotional associations drove motivation for political action and that social identity influenced interest in and experiences with activism. While activism represented the self-actualization of values, identity-rights activism came with the added burden of pressure and personal risks for some. The findings highlight the complexity of emotions motivating activism, the significance of identity and values for finding belonging, and the intersectional dimension of one’s sense of agency.