The FridaysForFuture movement represent a new wave of environmentalism with a strong generational identity, whose young activists are consitutively networked (online and offline) and joined by a common representation of climate change. This research project addresses the use of social media by Italian teenagers participating in it. Specifically, the project aims to:
O1. Explore how they use and perceive social media (when organizing mobilizations, and sharing emotions, information and opinions related to climate change and the movement);
O2. Unveil how they represent climate change (when referring to their motivations for participation, and their knowledge and perception of the problem);
O3. Grasp how these two sense-giving processes are intertwined each other.
The theoretical framework draws upon differents strand of studies, encompassing literature about the technopolitical and connective use of social media by grassroots movements, the contributions about communication on climate change, and the researches on media practices and civic engagement of young people.
Given the exploratory objectives of the research project, a qualitative methodological approach is privileged. It blends (online and offline) participant observation with focus groups, both to be carried out with 14- to 19-year-old activists from Rome. Alternatively, if the COVID-19 health emergency will require physical distancing, both fieldwork activities will take place online and include activists from all over Italy.
The thematic analysis of the results will account for how social media usages, political struggles and generational identity are concretely intertwined within the sense-giving processes both between users and platforms, and between users themselves. Therefore, results will shed light on how and why precisely climate change is mobilizing young people, specifically and so massively.
This project traces a leading thread between the main research areas the candidate has gone through in previous and ongoing studies, and new horizons of investigation she is interested in opening.
The proposal relies on her expertise about: a) media practices of grassroots movements and organizations; b) generational uses of social media and online relational practices of young people; and c) motivations and experiences mobilizing people for social and environmental justice (see Research Experiences and Pubblications in the CV). Results dialogue with such research lines for highlighting which socio-political issues (e.g., commons, femicide, climate change) and communicative political practices (e.g., hashtagging, live radio broadcasting, territorial face-to-face communication), more than others, can effectively summon and mobilize citizenship nowadays, and how and why. In this, they also unveil the pivotal role played by the related sense-giving processes in supporting mobilization and civic engagement.
The research will also contribute to the strands of literature it draws upon, by highlighting how social media usages, political struggles and generational identity are concretely intertwined within the sense-giving processes both between users and platforms, and between users themselves. More specifically, regarding the studies about the use of digital media by grassroots movements, results will contribute by showing how continuity of political action and identization processes are built through a connective and generational use of social media. Moreover, regarding the studies on environmental communication, results will open a window on the bottom-up environmental communication practices that take place along online and offline social networks, and how, hence, the problem of climate change can be thematized and represented outside the news outlets and regardless of the sensationalism of major events. Besides, the research will contribute to literature on social representations, by accounting for how young people anchor and objectify climate change along their online and offline social networks. Finally, results will provide an in-depth understanding of how being young and being social media users affect the interplay between the youth participatory culture and politics.
On the other hand, results will provide a baseline for future researches about the social representation of climate change and the related media practices. For example, through a nationwide survey it might be possible to verify whether the social representations of climate change and the participatory usages of social media identified in this exploratory study are actually related to the generational identity of teenagers (that is, whther they exceed the contexts of political militancy), and if so, in what terms. Given the considerable female protagonism in the FFF, the survey itself would also allow a gender analysis to measure whether and how such representations and uses vary between boys and girls (and, therefore, whether and how gender is a discriminating variable with respect to the perception of sensitive social issues and civic engagement).
Besides, the final communication outputs of the research can promote and orient climate-friendly tailored interventions and/or innovative best practices, especially among young people. The final policy paper (for stakeholders) and the finding-restitution meeting (with participants) will be useful platforms to build diversified and participatory advocacy strategies with teenagers, families, schools and institutions.