Constructing a Generational “We”: Generational Identity Formation in the Fridays for Future Movement

Youth mobilization has long been a driving force for change, most notably in the climate justice movement of the past decade. The Fridays for Future (FFF) movement exemplifies this by mobilizing millions of young people to become politically active, significantly at a time when youth political disengagement seems to have become the norm. We argue that the FFF movement uses a considerable degree of generational populist discourse to form a shared ‘generational identity’ that heavily leans on the idea of constructing a generational “we.” In this paper, we investigate the characteristics and formation of this generational identity. With the help of semi-structured interviews with active participants in FFF, we explore how this identity is framed both internally and externally, the role of social ties and leadership figures in shaping it, the mechanics driving its diffusion among the youth, and finally, the challenges one faces in and as a result of adopting such an identity. This research is meant to be a step toward bridging individual agency and collective identity formation in the context of climate change movements.