The Movements of the 2010s and 2020s: The Lasting Influence of the Moments of Shining Brightness on Activist Youth Worlds

This presentation discusses what has been achieved with and in the aftermath of the post-2008 movements in four European cities — Athens, Istanbul, Paris, and Berlin — and the contribution these movements continue to make to the development of local and global political youth cultures.

The discussion is primarily developed from my in-depth conversations with the actors (aged 21 to 34) who led or were actively involved in the movements of the 2010s and who remain engaged in the collective spaces of activism in the 2020s. It mainly argues that the neoliberal project is drastically challenged by an expansion of not only the present field of activist experiences but also the horizon of expectation of youth-led activism since 2008.

Drawing on the conceptual resources of phenomenology, particularly from Hannah Arendt, my analysis unfolds the lasting influence of the foundations for radical democratic structures. While showing the living impacts of the movements of the 2010s on the contemporary youth political worlds, this study advocates for an in-depth exploration of the imaginary, affective, temporal, and relational domains of activist subjectivities.