Another exploring: How people participate in politics more

I am finally getting around to blogging. It has been challenging, especially for the past several weeks, because I could not balance studying, working, and private life. I somehow could find a way to get through each day, asking myself if I needed to let something go.

Today, I’m going to explore a different theme from what I wrote before on this blog, though it still connects to them if you look at it carefully 🙂

How people participate in politics more

The article I encountered as the reading in Jen’s class made me think about its theme. Recently, I have been feeling sad/helpless since the war happened again last month. While I took some small actions to contribute to innocent people, I have been in a dilemma whenever I was about to return to being apathetic in my busy life. Its situation has also given me a passion to consider the theme. 

The short summary of the reading

Campos, R. M. D. O., & Martins, J. C. (2023). Political socialisation narratives of young activists. Contexts, settings, and actors. Journal of Youth Studies

• It focuses on how young people in Portugal become activists in informal settings.
• Campos argues that youth political engagement happens outside of institutions. Also, he claims we should focus more on young people’s agency and their capacity to collectively build knowledge and develop innovative forms of political action.
• The relationships with friends and peers are crucial in their formation as activists. 
• Especially among particular minorities or devalued social groups, cohorts have substantial power to make them become activists. 
• The significance of the top-down dissemination of knowledge and information in educational and family contexts is beyond dispute (Quintelier 2015; Terriquez and Kwon 2015)

Personal impressions and thoughts

I reflected on my experience and realised how significant my friends’ influence had been when I gradually became politically interested. Furthermore, I agree with his quote that parents play an antagonistic role in forming the political identity.

I have been thinking that we should help individuals to get more fulfilled if we encourage them to participate in politics. Because I believe people can think about others and society if they have leeway both mentally and physically in their lives. However, after reading this article, I found another way. When people have strong difficulty to survive in society, it leads them to take political action. As Campos stated, being an activist and belonging to a specific activist group gives them self-justification.  

Question after reading: Can only those who are socially vulnerable people/minorities be politically active? 

Not answers, but some thoughts

• While I don’t fit into the minority described in this article, I’m sure I’m a minority in certain contexts. Moreover, I believe that everyone can be a minority. We have characteristics that are different from others. 
• Maybe inactive people(including me) can survive and feel mostly okay if they don’t take action.
• In the first place, people in modern society tend not to have enough time to think about others and to be obsessed with what seems to help individual lives, such as money and jobs. 

Can you see how I connected it with what I posted in the last sentence? Hopefully, see you soon! 

📸 Taken by me when I went to the fundraising event for the citizens in Gaza with Josua. The old lady from Syria shared tasty coffee and homemade sweets with us.