How are children and youth represented in global climate politics, and how do youth create agency for themselves in highly technical fields? In this interview, Frida Buhre, researcher at Uppsala University, talks about the narratives and barriers that shape the possibilities of youth to act politically.
Frida Buhre has a PhD in Rhetorics and recently finished a postdoc in the field of Child Studies and Environmental Change at Linköping University. Her research focuses on the political aesthetics of youth climate justice activism and children and young people’s representation in global climate politics. She has previously worked on how conceptions of time can be used in social mobilization and indigenous resistance movements.
JM: Hi Frida! Can you please tell us more about your current work and research?
FB: I am currently involved in a project at the Department of Thematic Studies at Linköping University which is a collaboration with German colleagues. In this project, we analyze the political representation of children and youth in the context of global climate, migration and health governance. We study whether and how children and youth are allowed to participate in policy development within these fields. So, we are interested in looking at who is actually involved in terms of children and youth. How many are they? Where are they from? What background do they have? So that’s one part of what we’re interested in.
In addition to this, we are also interested in studying the conditions for their participation and representation in these spaces. We are looking at the barriers to political participation from a more general viewpoint at the level of global politics. And, if there are barriers, to what extent do young people nonetheless participate, make claims, and put forth suggestions as representatives of the world’s children and youth?
JM: In which ways are young people navigating and creating (rhetorical) agency in political settings today? And how can adults enable youth participation?
This depends a little bit on the policy field. For example, in global climate governance, children and youth are to a certain extent allowed a political space. They are understood and talked about in ways that frame them as activists: that they are there to demonstrate, like for example at the Conference of the Parties, the UN climate conferences. Thus, it is expected that youth will have a critical eye on those in power.
Whereas in health, for example, many young people participating in important events at an international level are medical students who are very competent and professional. They are expected to be there to learn, to listen and not to create any contention. They are there to observe and learn the rules of the game — to later become someone who might have something to say. In that way, it is quite different.
Also, in the climate policy area, we see discourses of children and youth being spoken of as vulnerable and marginalized. They are identified as a group that is particularly affected by climate change, lacks resources, and lacks the power to change their situation. This type of narrative is used by children’s rights organizations and adult actors who speak with the best interest of children in mind, but who might forget the political agency of youth.
Another common narrative is closely connected to entrepreneurialism. It is a solution-driven narrative where children and youth are spoken of as particularly creative, innovative, knowledgeable, and having alternative ways of thinking and approaching problems. So, it is necessary for them to be included. This narrative is about youth as solution-finders. Settings where this narrative is dominant are often linked to the industry, which sets up and holds competitions for youth, for instance, in technical innovation. They compete with other youths and win a prize or a scholarship. It is a rather neoliberal framing of youth inclusion. In this case, youth can participate not as political subjects, or because they have a democratic right, instead their participation is linked to market solutions to the climate crisis.
So, these are emerging as dominant narratives in which children and youth find themselves. But what then do children and youth do when they are invited on these premises? The premise is already set by adult actors of various kinds. In such cases, youth might either refrain from taking part or try to reshape those narratives into something else, something that is more attuned to what they want.
To do this they use multiple strategies, one of which is to be highly prepared. The youth who participated in the Conference of the Parties, for example, were highly motivated and highly trained. They are super technical in their language and are well-read in the different policy domains in which they take part, all in order to be taken seriously. It’s a sort of prerequisite for them. That is what we find in their speeches and interviews. They know that they need to be as knowledgeable as others, if not more.
They also try to support each other in their activism. They take part in workshops, benefit from senior mentorships and join training programmes. This boosts their competence.
But not all youth have the same opportunities. And there are also many barriers. Starting with economic barriers as travel to these events is costly. Then, there’s a formal accreditation system where they have to be part of an organization to get the accreditation. These are formal barriers. But there are also rhetorical barriers in the form of hegemonic conceptions of children. It is often the case with marginalized groups that people in power have conceptions of them — of how and what they are. People in this group then must always respond, in some way, to these conceptions before they can make their own claims. And that holds true also for youth.
JM: Where do you see the greatest need for change regarding the inclusion of children and youth in governance and decision-making?
Removing informal barriers as well as financial and material barriers. Also, changing the narrative of why children and youth should be included. And that last part is perhaps, in one way, the most difficult one. But one possible solution is to include youth and children in the planning of events and give them space in shaping the narratives that surround them.
JM: How do you understand intergenerational justice?
That’s a difficult question. I mean, it’s hard to say what intergenerational justice would mean when it’s literally impossible to achieve intergenerational justice at this point. But what would it mean if it were possible? We can think of this in relation to climate change. We can think about it in terms of economic justice, like who is to pay for the costs of climate impacts?
Intergenerational climate justice is more of a temporal concept that stretches across time rather than space. In the sense that each generation has equal opportunities to live a dignified life on the planet.
It’s often thought of as the rights of children, and future generations, to inherit a planet that is livable, and that can sustain life. In this, there is also a historical dimension of climate justice. Thinking about how countries have been colonized and where resources have been extracted, ecosystems have suffered damage and humans have been exploited. It’s deeply unjust that we are handing over this burden to young people and future generations.
Read more from Frida Buhre:
- The Politics of Children´s Rights and Representation (this anthology will be published in 2023).
- Glädjen och raseriets estetik: Fridays for Futures affektiva uttryck
In Conversation With is an interview series in which we host researchers, practitioners, activists, and others who are engaged in hands-on initiatives, projects, and similar actions in their local environments. We would like to give space to emerging topics and hear more from those directly engaged in initiatives seeking to make our urban areas safer, more inclusive, and sustainable.
The interviews are moderated by our project communication officer Johanna Männikkö.
