REACT Re-imagining Activism, Communication and Trajectories of Participation in the Global South

We live in a time of endemic uncertainty and accelerating socio-economic exclusion. The collapse of the extractivist ideology of the neoliberal model of development has led to a need for other worldviews. Young people in the Global South are particularly impacted by the socio-economic consequences, affecting their ability to control their livelihoods. This is indicated by high unemployment, gender and job market inequalities, and the decline of living standards despite general economic growth.
REACT emerges as an ambitious, feasible project. The ambition is empirical, methodological and theoretical. REACT uniquely focuses on sourcing everyday activism outside of conventional activist spaces.
A qualitative study of 300 youth across 5 cities combined with a survey (12.000) from 20 cities, will generate insights on how young people negotiate and act upon their life circumstances. REACT applies a critical-creative pedagogy to foster critical hope via artistic expression, scenario building, urban manifestos, networking and cultural encounters across the Global South. Uncovering individuals’ everyday practices of activism generates insights about the formation of subjectivities in urban contexts, practices of communication in everyday life, perceptions and forms of activism, connects hope with citizenship, and individual action with collective action. These elements are deeply intertwined, hence the need for an interdisciplinary framework.
Embedded in communication for social change, and drawing on cultural studies, urban studies, critical pedagogy and critical development studies, REACT will develop a novel interdisciplinary theory for the study of COMmunication, PArticipation and Social Change (COMPAS). REACT’s ambition is also geographical and epistemological. Conducting a study of young people across the geographical Global South can amend the cognitive injustice seen in the imbalance of knowledge production about youth, communication and social change.