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“Power in Numbers”: Youth Organizing as a Context for Exploring Civic Identity
Author(s) -
Kirshner Ben
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of research on adolescence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.342
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1532-7795
pISSN - 1050-8392
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2009.00601.x
Subject(s) - grassroots , identity (music) , agency (philosophy) , perspective (graphical) , context (archaeology) , power (physics) , individualism , ethnography , sociology , community organizing , social psychology , gender studies , psychology , public relations , political science , social science , politics , anthropology , paleontology , physics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , acoustics , computer science , law , biology
This study examines civic identity exploration among African‐American and Asian‐American urban youth who participated in a grassroots organizing campaign to improve their local high schools. Drawing on 9 months of ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with participants, the study found that the campaign provided a venue for participants to wrestle with contrasting perspectives about the relationship between the individual and the broader public. The first perspective, which I call atomism , described local social relations as individualistic and self‐interested. The second perspective, which I call collective agency , emphasized that people should work together toward common goals and that the more people who were involved, the more powerful the effort would be. Implications of youth organizing for civic identity formation are discussed.