Lost and found? Globalised neoliberalism and global youth resistance

This article aims to offer a critical understanding of the recent wave of global youth resistance activities through the conceptual notion of lost youth and the material conditions that give this descriptive term its concrete expression in the lives of youths across the world. It aims to explore the materiality of this loss through the prism of neoliberal economic and political policies that have become commonplace in the restructuring of national economies and societies since the latter part of the 20th century. The article also contends, however, that the recent outbreaks of youth protests and uprisings across the world against a long-running oppressive and hegemonic global system signal instances of breaking the silence on the part of youth as a social group long rendered mute and nondescript by society. These outbreaks, as well as ongoing attempts by young people to devise their own solutions to systemic problems, amount to an announcement of youth agency in determining their own future, in a way that relocates the social category youth from lost to found in contemporary global consciousness. © 2014 Critical Arts Projects and Unisa Press