Everyday Violence and Crosscutting Conditions Shaping Social and Political Dimensions of Unsafety in Youth Activism

Abstract

Existing research addresses violence in youth activism from two directions, broader societal violence or specific violence targeting political action. Nonetheless, these are explored separately according to type of activism, suggesting that this is the most relevant factor shaping violence in youth activism. This article captures other crucial factors by exploring both directions together and bringing in the concept of everyday violence. Grounded theory method and situational maps were used to collect and analyse qualitative interviews with young adult activists in three Swedish cities. Three conditions were found that crosscut youth activism to shape meanings and actions of unsafety: temporal, spatial and organizational. Across the three cities, temporal conditions produced shared experiences among young adult activists with social dimensions of unsafety, which corresponded to broader societal violence. In the third city, spatial and organizational conditions produced different experiences with political dimensions of unsafety, which corresponded to specific violence targeting political action.