The “Youthquake” in British Politics: Myth or Reality?
School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Lincoln, Lincoln LN6 7TS, UK
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Societies 2019, 9(4), 68; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc9040068
Received: 9 August 2019 / Revised: 23 September 2019 / Accepted: 24 September 2019 / Published: 29 September 2019
This article explores whether the past few years have witnessed what can accurately be described as a “youthquake” in British politics, following the candidature and election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party. It argues that the British Election Study team, who argue that we witnessed “tremors but no youthquake”, fail to advance a convincing case that turnout did not significantly increase among the youngest group of voters in the 2017 general election in the UK, as compared to the previous election. The article explains why their rejection of the idea of a youthquake having occurred is problematic, focusing on the limitations of the BES data, the team’s analysis of it and the narrowness of their conception of what the notion of a “youthquake” entails. This article argues that there is other evidence suggestive of increased youth engagement in politics, both formal and informal, and that some social scientists have failed to spot this due to an insufficiently broad understanding of both “politics” and “youth”. The article concludes that vital work needs to be done to better conceptualise and measure the political experiences, understandings and actions of young people, which are not adequately captured by current methods.
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Keywords:
youthquake; British Election Study; 2017 general election; young people; political engagement
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MDPI and ACS Style
Allsop, B.; Kisby, B. The “Youthquake” in British Politics: Myth or Reality? Societies 2019, 9, 68. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc9040068
AMA Style
Allsop B, Kisby B. The “Youthquake” in British Politics: Myth or Reality? Societies. 2019; 9(4):68. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc9040068
Chicago/Turabian StyleAllsop, Bradley, and Ben Kisby. 2019. "The “Youthquake” in British Politics: Myth or Reality?" Societies 9, no. 4: 68. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc9040068
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