Radicalisation to retreat: young people's responses to Austerity Europe

The prospects for young people in Europe look bleak. The ‘social condition’ of young people is characterised by experiences of exclusion, and a sense of betrayal and anger at having been ‘sacrificed’ by the older generation. Many more young people, from more diverse backgrounds and perspectives, are now exposed to precarious social circumstances. Spontaneous and planned ‘riots’ and urban protest have displayed the anger and the anxieties of youth in Europe. How young people will continue to respond to these conditions is clearly a matter for conjecture and there is a range of possibilities. The democratic imperative is by no means certain. This paper advances a scenario in which historically socially disadvantaged youth may connect with newly intellectually disaffected young people to produce either more toxic or more creative alliances amongst the young.