From Bangladesh and Kenya to Serbia, Morocco, and India, we have recently witnessed a series of highly visible youth-led protest movements that have been described as “Gen-Z protests”. While differing – sometimes markedly – in their origins, demands and outcomes, these movements have called attention to the growing political agency of a generation that is digitally connected, highly networked, and often mobilising around questions of social justice, economic opportunity, and democratic governance. Their emergence has coincided with profound global transformations, including the expansion of digital communication, new forms of transnational connectivity, and the increasing cooperation of non-democratic governments in responding to dissent. Yet despite growing scholarly and public interest, our understanding of these movements remains limited.
One reason for this is that they are so recent. But it is also because emerging research has largely focused either on individual cases or on identifying broad characteristics – such as the prominence of younger activists, digitally mediated mobilisation, or their horizontal structure – that are assumed to distinguish “Gen-Z protests”. We know much less about the variation across these movements, and what this variation means in terms of their ability to be politically consequential. More broadly, we lack the kind of comparative analysis that can tell us what shapes the dynamics of “Gen-Z protests”, and whether they constitute an evolution or a revolution in terms of contentious politics.
The panel is intended as a conversation between researchers working on youth and social movements, digital activism, autocratisation and authoritarianism, and comparative politics, to showcase cutting-edge research on “Gen-Z protests”. It invites comparative, theoretical and empirically grounded papers that advance our understanding of recent youth-led protest movements. We welcome contributions focused on individual cases, cross-regional comparisons, or conceptual and methodological debates. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
• How distinctive are “Gen-Z protests”?
• Are “Gen-Z protests” really youth dominated?
• What explains similarities and differences across youth-led protest movements?
• How are digital technologies, social media and transnational diffusion and repression reshaping youth-led protest?
• Under what conditions do “Gen-Z” protests produce meaningful political change?
• How are global transformations, including global democratic decline, and authoritarian cooperation, shaping contemporary youth mobilisation?
