Beyond lifestyle politics in a time of crisis?: Comparing young peoples’ issue agendas and views on inequality

Speaker: Ariadne Vromen (University of Sydney)

Contemporary research on young people and politics routinely portrays their political engagement as: individualised not collectivist; issues but not ideology driven; and postmaterialist instead of materialist. This shift towards ‘lifestyle politics’, often characterised as a ‘politics of choice’, is assumed to be universal for young people, rather than shaped by traditional social cleavages and structures.

This seminar will talk about these assumptions and ask whether young people’s recent experience of national economic austerity and increasing material inequality shapes both the everyday political issues that they identify with, and how they understand inequality and distribution of resources in their societies.

About the Speaker

Ariadne Vromen is a political sociologist, and her research interests include: political participation, social movements, advocacy organisations, digital politics, and young people and politics. Ariadne has completed extensive research on Australian young people’s political engagement, including co-authoring a policy report for the National Youth Affairs Research Scheme. She has also co-authored several texts on Australian politics, including Powerscape: Contemporary Australian Politics. Ariadne is a member of the WUN group, Networking Young Citizens; and on the steering committee of the ECPR Standing Group, Participation and Mobilisation. Ariadne is an enthusiastic political science teacher, and has won a Vice Chancellor’s award for Outstanding Teaching; and, after nomination by her colleagues, a Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Research Mentoring award.