Learning democracy through activism: the global climate strike movement and Belgian youth’s democratic experience in times of environmental emergency

ABSTRACTThe climate protests are one of the most impressive social movements of this time and are historical in various respects: the global and widespread scale, the employed protest tactics, and its young demographic character. This study explicitly takes the position that the climate marches are opening new avenues of politization with a radical educational democratic potential. Building on the conceptual framework of social movement learning, the educational experiences of recurring participants of the protests are explored in terms of civic education. This contributes not only to the understanding of the possibility of the climate movement as educational spaces for learning about politics and democracy, but also to a better understanding of the educational potential of social movements in general. The research design consists of a single country case study with individual interviews and focus groups with frequent participants of the climate protests in Belgium. The findings indicate that the climate protests are an especially fruitful place for political engagement acting as a catalysator for politization. It fosters a process with reflections on individual agency, collective responsibility, current political structures, and the democratic ideals of our society.KEYWORDS: Citizenship educationinformal civic educationpolitical engagementenvironmental protestschool strike for climateFridays for future Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Additional informationNotes on contributorsRonald CrouzéDrs. Ronald Crouzé has been affiliated with the Department of Education Sciences at Vrije Universiteit Brussel as a doctoral researcher since 2018. His research focuses on current social issues concerning the educational role and political significance of civic movements and youth protest. The urban context, more specifically Brussels, is not only a personal source of inspiration here, but also the research field in which the political engagement of young people is studied.Louise GodardM.A. Louise Godard holds a master in Educational Science from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and is project manager in a Belgian non-profit organization that involve and empower young people in the transition to a sustainable society.Pieter MeursProfessor Dr. Pieter Meurs holds a doctorate in Philosophy. He is an assistant professor at the Department of Education Sciences of the Free University of Brussels and the Social Work program at the Erasmus University College. He is the author, among others, of Democracy and Education (2021), Introduction to Agogical Sciences (2020) and Against Imagination (2017).