Understanding variations in young people’s climate engagement and disengagement. A scoping review analyzed through the lens of youth studies

This review maps out the knowledge status within the field of youth studies on the different ways young people approach the climate crisis – their (dis)engagement. We find that while survey-based studies have focused on mapping differences in young people’s climate (dis)engagement at a general level, qualitative studies have predominantly focused on young people participating in environmental activism. This limits our understanding of how structural dimensions work in concrete everyday situations, influencing young people’s approaches. There is a need for more qualitative studies of how young people’s diverging paths develop differently according to their social positions, including those who do not participate in climate activism. Both the climate crisis and the acceleration of tech-capitalism and social media contribute to increased polarization between groups along existing social divides. Still, we find that there is little research that critically explores this new media logic’s role in young people’s climate (dis)engagement. This research gap points towards one of the greatest challenges for scholars within the field of youth studies in the time to come – both related to young people’s climate (dis)engagement, and how to understand the ways young people’s diverging paths develop in general within this new era of capitalism.