Youth, Resistance and Social Movements in Polarized Times: Learning from Global South

Dear Colleagues,

In an era marked by deepening political and social polarization, youth-led movements have emerged as vital forces of resistance and social transformation. From the Arab Spring to the global climate strikes, feminist movements, and against gentrification processes in the global cities, young people are redefining dissent in contexts where authoritarianism, neoliberalism, colonialism, and systemic inequalities collide. Different evidence exemplifies how young activists reinterpret traditions, reclaim public spaces, and forge decentralized networks to challenge oppressive systems (Fahmi and Sutton, 2014; Schielke, 2015; Sánchez-García, 2018). However, academic frameworks often overlook the Global South’s intellectual and tactical contributions, privileging Eurocentric theories (Grosfoguel, 2011; Saud Alfaisal, 2018). The different social movements in the Global South during the XXI century highlighted the agency of youth in driving transformative social change, resistance, and politization of youth activities and practices (Vommaro, 2015; Sánchez-García, 2023). These movements transcended conventional political frameworks, embodying decolonial practices rooted in local epistemologies and traditions. Yet, academic analyses of such movements often remain tied to Eurocentric paradigms, sidelining the rich intellectual and organizational legacies of non-western contexts. This Special Issue seeks to redress this gap by centering knowledge and practices from the South, where youth movements have historically confronted colonial legacies, state violence, resource extraction, and fights for sexual and reproductive rights and justice (Sayyid, 2005; Bayat, 2010; Agrama, 2012; Ross and Solinger, 2017).

At this point, recent scholarship emphasizes the need to decolonize social movement theories by centering forgotten epistemologies, such as Arab-Islamic thought, and recognizing the interplay between historical struggles and contemporary activism (Beinin and Veirel, 2009; Sayyid, 2015; Bamyah, 2012). Youth have been pivotal in these processes, leveraging grassroots networks, digital platforms, and reinterpreted traditions to contest authoritarianism, neoliberalism, feminism, and coloniality (Singerman, 1995; Schielke, 2015). Their actions—from occupying public squares to organizing neighborhood solidarity networks—reveal innovative forms of resistance that blur the lines between political actions and everyday life. How do Global South youth reinterpret cultural political legacies to legitimize dissent? How have Global South movements inspired Global North activism?

This Special Issue seeks to amplify interdisciplinary research on how Global South youth navigate and reshape social movements through decolonial praxis. By bridging North–South dialogs and foregrounding non-Western frameworks, we aim to challenge hegemonic narratives and foster a deeper understanding of youth-led emancipatory projects with a decolonial perspective (Maldonado-Torres, 2011; Mignolo, 1993; Quijano, 2014).

This Special Issue will examine how young activists reinterpret historical traditions, forge transnational solidarities, and confront structural inequalities while navigating repressive state apparatuses. The issue aims to (1) decolonize Eurocentric theories of social movements by integrating Global-South epistemologies; (2) highlight youth agency in bridging historical struggles (e.g., anti-colonial and/or feminist movements) with contemporary demands for dignity, justice, and reclaiming youthfulness (Bayat, 2010); and (3) foster Cross-South comparisons to uncover shared tactics (e.g., horizontal assemblies, “quiet encroachment”) and divergent challenges faced by youth in the South. By situating youth at the intersection of decolonial theory and praxis, this issue will contribute to broader debates on democracy, autonomy, feminism, and post-capitalist futures. We invite contributions that engage with, but are not limited to, the following themes:

1. Decolonial epistemologies and youth activism devoted to case studies on the use of socio-cultural concepts in framing demands for social justice and critiques of Eurocentric movement theories and proposals for alternative frameworks.
2. Polarization and tactical innovation, attending youth responses to authoritarianism, militarization, right-wing movements, and neoliberal austerity as the role of digital platforms, art, and performance in resisting the youth-led self-management in settlements and alternative practices to fight against neoliberal and right-wing policies with comparative analyses of repression and resistance in North–South movements; and, finally, the backlash of sexual and reproductive rights and their contestation and resistance.
3. Intersectional struggles and generational shifts as gender, race, and class in youth movements, both confronting patriarchy and xenophobia; feminist reflexive processes inside the movements to confront inequality inside the social movements themselves; indigenous and migrant youth reclaiming sovereignty in urban/rural landscapes; and youth challenging elders’ political compromises.
4. Transnational solidarities and movements focused on the lessons from the Global South and on youth networks addressing climate justice, migration, and anti-austerity across the Global South; the role of diaspora youth in bridging local-global struggles as pro-Palestinian movements in the Global North; and South–South collaborations on climate justice, migration, anti-extractivism, and reproductive justice in access to sexual and reproductive rights and healthcare services.
5. Everyday resistance and non-social movements, focusing on alternative economies as resistance survival tactics, in performative violence and symbolic disruptions by relegated youth (e.g., youth street groups and gangs and/or gender violence); ethnographic insights into unregistered collectives and their political impact as from Algerian baltagiyya or Brazil’s rolezinhos; and the politicization of care work, reproductive justice, housing, and education in marginalized communities.

We welcome theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions from disciplines including sociology, anthropology, political science, and cultural studies. Submissions should critically engage with decolonial thought and prioritize youth voices, taking into account intersectional perspectives. This Special Issue will provide a platform for rethinking youth activism through the lens of decoloniality, offering fresh insights for scholars, policymakers, and activists committed to transformative justice. By centering the Global South, this issue will challenge universalizing narratives and offer actionable insights for youth activism in diverse polarized contexts.

References

Agrama, H. A. (2012). Reflections on secularism, democracy, and politics in Egypt.American Ethnologist, 39 (1), 26–31. 

al-Sayyid, M. K. (2009). Kefaya at a turning point. In N. S. Hopkins (Ed.), Political and social protest in Egypt (pp. 45–59). Cairo Papers in Social Science. 

Appadurai, A. (1990). Disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy. Theory, Culture & Society, 7, 295–310. https://doi.org/10.1177/026327690007002017.  

Bamyeh, M. H.  (2012). “Anarchist Philosophy, Civic Traditions and the Culture of Arab Revolutions”. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 5, pp. 32–41.

Bayat, A. (2010). Life as politics: How ordinary people change the Middle East. Amsterdam University Press. https://hdl.handle.net/1887/15229.

Beinin, J. and Veirel, F. (2009) “Introduction” in Social Movements, Mobilization, and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Braudel, F. (2016[1949]). El Mediterráneo y el mundo mediterráneo en la época de Felipe II. Vol I. México: FCE.

Fahmi, W. S., & Sutton, K. (2014). Living with the dead: Contested spaces and the right to Cairo’s inner-city cemeteries. World Sustainability Forum 2014 – Conference Proceedings Paper. https://sciforum.net/manuscripts/2444/manuscript.pdf.  

Grosfoguel, R. (2011). Epistemic racism, epistemic Islamophobia and colonial social sciences. Tabula Rasa, 14. 

Hamzah, D. (2018). Foundations of religious reform (Islah) and cultural revival. In A. Ghazal & J. Hanssen (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of contemporary Middle Eastern and North African history (pp. 39–67). Oxford University Press. 

Mahfoud, A. (2001) “Presentación”. En Abd al-Yabri, Crítica de la razón árabe. Barcelona: Icaria.

Maldonado-Torres, N. (2011). Thinking through the decolonial turn: Post-continental interventions in theory, philosophy, and critique — An introduction. Transmodernity: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World, 1 (2), 1–14. 

Mignolo, W. (1993). Colonial or postcolonial discourse: Cultural critique or academic colonialism? Latin American Research Review, 28 (3), 120–134. 

Omrane, M., Al-Oued, H., & Tizi, Z. (2023). Juventud y procesos de mediación en Argelia. In J. Sánchez-García (Ed.), Juventudes magrebíes: Informalidad, resistencia y marginalización. Ned Ediciones. 

Patrick, H. (2005). L’ordre des caïds: Conjurer la dissidence urbaine au Caire. Karthala/Cedej. 

Quijano, A. (2014). Colonialidad del poder y clasificación social. In A. Quijano, Cuestiones y horizontes: De la dependencia histórico-estructural a la colonialidad/descolonialidad del poder (pp. 285–327). CLACSO. 

Sayyid, S. (2005) Mirror, mirror. Western democrats, oriental despots? Ethnicities, Vol 5(1): 30–50. doi:10.1177/1468796805049924.

Saud Alfaisal, H. (2018). Coloniality, modernity and European knowledge in al-Ṭahṭāwī’s Taḫlīṣ al-ibrīz fī talḫīṣ Bārīz. Arablit, 8(15), 7–30. 

Schielke, S. (2015). Egypt in the future tense: Hope, frustration, and ambivalence before and after 2011. Indiana University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvxkn64g. 

Singerman, D. (1995) Avenues of Participation: Family, Politics, and Networks in Urban Quarters of Cairo. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Jose Sánchez García
Guest Editor

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• youth
• social movements
• non-social movements
• decoloniality
• epistemologies
• Global South