Experiences of environmental leadership by young people: Implications for the constitution of the ethical-political subject

Abstract

This article presents a study about youth protagonist experiences of young people who take part in a social and environmental collective. It sets up an exploratory field research with a qualitative approach, which was attended by three members of a young collective of social-environmental actions. Data were collected by conducting a focus group and analyzed through constructive-interpretative analysis. The study revolves around the theoretical concepts of youth and the environmental role of experience and the ethical-political subject. The results indicate that youth protagonist experiences of participation by young people are products and producers of new relationships with each other, and others will be through personal transformation, by collective autonomy promotion, by the possibility of sociopolitical organization and by the expansion of the political collective commitment. The findings indicate that experiencing social and environmental activities made it possible for young people to strengthen social and political commitment and increased awareness as agents of change in their reality, in themselves and others, with respect to caring for the environment; thus, in this way demonstrating a caring concern, buoyed in ethical political conduct. © The Author(s), 2018.