Everyday citizen or eco-activist? Youth agency in imagining sustainable futures in coastal Ecuador

This article explores the role of youth agency in the construction of environmental knowledge and perceptions of climate-related risk among secondary school students in coastal Ecuador. Using an interdisciplinary framework grounded in the capability approach and critical science agency concepts, this project explores how youth climate agency is realized in coastal Ecuador, the experiences and perspectives that support the development of youth climate agency, and how individual agencies and aspirations shape youth perceptions of environmental risk. I analyzed data from surveys conducted with 193 students in 2 different secondary schools, as well as interviews with 17 of these students. The study found that participants enacted climate action in their everyday lives, with an agency that is grounded in personal and community understandings of wellbeing and interconnectedness, and complicated by future aspirations, (socio)political consciousness, and hierarchies of power. Additionally, short-term, contingent events—specifically, the El Niño phenomenon—shape youth visions of future climate risks and adaptation.