Round table: Youth digital activism across borders

Round table discussion and activist-led protest art-making workshop will take place on Thursday 29 June 2023 at 10:00 a.m. in Brno as part of the CEECOM (Central and Eastern European Communication and Media Conference). 

The event is addressed to the media, the public and all those interested in civic activism of children and youth. The discussion will be held in English and admission is free.

Please confirm your attendance by sending an email to victoria.nainova@fsv.cuni.cz.

The roundtable is organized by the team of the PRIMUS research project of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University, which focuses on digital activism of youth in the CEE region, with a focus on Fridays for Future - a global youth climate movement founded in 2018 after Greta Thunberg's speech in front of the Swedish Parliament.

The aim of this international & interdisciplinary research team of early career researchers and PhD students from the Czech Republic & Hungary is to study the digital civic engagement of children and youth (under 18-year olds) and the skills needed for digital activism through the following: 

1) analysis of online public discourse on and representations of civic activities of youth involved in the #ClimateStrike minors-led movement with the use of content & discourse analysis methods exploring norms related to youth civic participation;

2) digital ethnography and participatory action research used within media literacy research to comprehend minors’ views on civic engagement and the digital skills needed to participate.

By fusing these two we will create an innovative theoretical & methodological framework to research children’s civic engagement in global issues. With an increased EU interest in the digital transformation of societies, we will offer a framework for liaising with scholars, activists and policymakers.

The event consists of:

1. A presentation of research findings of a 3-year research project Digital Activism – Children and youth digital civic engagement in a globalised world, held by the principal investigator Annamária Neag, D.Phil.

2. The following speakers accepted our invitation:

Sarah Pickard (Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle)

Jakub Macek (Masaryk University)

Andrea Culková (filmmaker of among other Grief, 2020; Sugar Blues, 2014)

Lili Aschenbrenner (Fridays for Future Hungary)

Pavel Rysula (Fridays for Future Czech Republic)

3. Workshop led by Fridays for Future activists, where attendees will create protest art.

Lenka Vochocová and Annamária Neag, researchers of the project of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University, will be available to the media. The most recent output of their project on youth digital activism is a research paper on the exclusion of young environmental activists from the digital public sphere.

This event is funded by Charles University, through grant no PRIMUS/21/HUM/003.