Perspective From A Youth Environmental Activist: Why Adults Will Listen To Youth In Politics Frontiers in Political Science

This perspective article is divided between the account of an emerging youth political activist, Katelyn Higgins, and the subsequent collaborative research project she coordinated. After 10 years of experience in youth political action, Higgins worked with co-authors to develop a qualitative study to explore the processes underlying youth influence over local environmental policymaking. We present findings from that study to supplement her perspective. The study supported fourth and fifth grade teachers by offering a marine debris curriculum which encouraged students to share their knowledge with local community members through environmental activism events. At the first event, students aged 8–10 presented at a town hall meeting; we interviewed 16 adults in attendance. The second “event” was a series of video PSAs (Public Service Announcements) in which students from across the state of North Carolina, United States, explained the harms of marine debris. Those PSAs were emailed to local officials; we conducted follow-up interviews with two officials. Four themes emerged to characterize how adults responded to youth environmental activism: young people were inspiring; adults want to support young people; and adults view young people as able to provide leadership for local action and challenge the establishment. Youth leaders and those looking to support them should be encouraged by these results, as they suggest adults, including local public officials, consider youth voices valuable and uniquely situated to foster productive political processes for addressing marine debris. Future research should continue to explore the degree to which positive feelings expressed by adults translate to action. R/18-ELWD-1

本视角文章分为两部分：一是新兴青年政治活动家凯特琳·希金斯（Katelyn Higgins）的经历叙述，二是她所统筹的后续合作研究项目。希金斯拥有十年青年政治行动实践经验后，与合著者共同开展了一项质性研究，旨在探究青年对地方环境政策制定施加影响的内在机制。本文呈现该研究的结果，以补充其视角。本研究为四年级与五年级教师提供了海洋垃圾主题课程，鼓励学生通过环境公益活动向当地社区成员分享所学知识。首场活动中，8至10岁的学生在市政厅会议上进行展示；我们对参会的16名成年人开展了访谈。第二场“活动”为一系列视频公益广告（Public Service Announcements, PSA），来自美国北卡罗来纳州各地的学生在其中讲解了海洋垃圾的危害。我们将这些公益广告通过电子邮件发送给当地官员，并对其中2名官员进行了跟进访谈。研究归纳出四个用以描述成年人对青年环境行动响应的核心主题：青年具有感召力；成年人渴望为青年提供支持；成年人认为青年能够为地方行动提供领导力，并对既有体制提出质疑。上述研究结果能够给予青年领袖及有意支持青年行动的群体以鼓舞，因为结果表明，包括地方公职人员在内的成年人均认为青年的声音具有价值，且青年处于独特的位置，能够推动形成应对海洋垃圾的高效政治进程。未来的研究应进一步探究成年人所表达的积极情感能够在多大程度上转化为实际行动。R/18-ELWD-1