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Youth protest in the city

03 November 2021, 12:00 pm–1:00 pm

Youth protesting on the streets. Photo by Mathias P.R. Reding on Unsplash

This third webinar in our Youth and the City webinar series focuses on the theme of youth activism. It will feature research from Nigeria and Glasgow at the start of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) COP26 negotiation 2021.

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Cost

Free

Organiser

Avril Keating

Presentation 1: Understanding youth restiveness in contemporary Nigeria - Street protests and dissent as forms of claim-making

Dr. Joseph Egwurube, University of La Rochelle

Though the Youth Policy declares the intention of governments at all levels to accelerate youth empowerment and cater for the welfare of those in this age bracket, to be young in Nigeria remains very challenging today.

Dr Egwurube will explore how young Nigerians have taken to street protests, among other avenues, as a vehicle to articulate their interests and make claims on public policy makers. He will examine what these interests are, and how street protests have been organised, drawing from the experience of some protests from the 1989 riots against the IMF imposed Structural Adjustment Programme to the End SARS movement in 2020 - which began as a fight by the youth against police brutality before it evolved into a demand for good governance and accountability.

Presentation 2: Contestation in the city and COP26: the voices of young environmental activists taking to the streets

Dr Sarah Pickard, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris and Dena Arya, Nottingham Trent University

This presentation will address why young people have been taking to the streets, where they have come from to participate, how they are using public spaces to protest, and what reactions their disruptive actions solicit from the public and the police. It will include insights from observations and interviews with young environmental protesters at COP26, as well as thoughts on carrying out research with young people in situ during protest actions.

The seminar builds on interviews carried out with young environmental activists in Fridays For Future (FFF) and Extinction Rebellion (XR) in late 2019. It will be given from Glasgow at the start of the UNCCC COP26 negotiations.


This event will be particularly useful for those interested in youth studies, politics, activism, environmentalism, urban studies, international development, sociology and geography.


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