Beyond Liberal Capitalist Pitfalls: Youth Organizers Envision and Enact Participatory Politics

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 9:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Intergenerational Resistance, Agency and Power through Youth Activism

Abstract

This inquiry explored how eight Black, Latinx, and Asian youth organizers in New York City, some of whom were economically dispossessed, drew from their lived experiences to understand and explain their sociopolitical and economic context and envision radical social change. Findings reveal: epistemic clarity regarding (1) the pitfalls of liberal and meritocratic ideologies and structures, (2) anti-capitalist and anti-colonialist analysis; (3) a strategic focus on anti-carceral organizing; and (4) ontological and material commitments to participatory politics. Centering youth organizers, this work disrupts taken-for-granted liberal approaches to social change and civics that often fail to address racial capitalism and colonial violence, advocating instead for anti-carceral organizing and participatory politics as a potential conduit for collective liberation.

Author

• Wanda Watson, San Jose State University