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Dissertation
Starting at sunrise: a study of learning and becoming in a hybrid youth climate organization
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
Jun 2025
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00011071
Abstract
With the rise in fears over climate change and the ascendance of social media as a connective and empowering tool for young people, youth climate activism has emerged as a salient movement in 21st century social organizing. This hybrid ethnographic study explores the dynamic processes of identity development, learning, and action among Sunrise "East Coast" members in a hybrid (online-offline) youth climate organization. Data were collected and analyzed from the following three sources: (1) observational fieldnotes; (2) organizational Instagram media posts; and (3) semi-structured interviews. Findings suggest that Sunrise East Coast members develop and conceptualize their identities, develop new political concepts and skills at multiple scales, develop and adopt communal, relational, and experiential epistemologies, and engage in preparation-to-action sequences as complex, interlocking processes. These findings expose the opportunity to visually expand politicization theory to include scales and sequences of the four components, as well as an added consideration to skill-development (fifth component) as part of the politicization process. Youth activist organizations and leaders can use these findings to design recruitments, orientations, and trainings that prepare young people for engagement in political behavior. Future research should explore dynamics between intersectional identities and emotion in activism, learning experiences that prepare for risk and predict activist behavior, and co-constituting processes of politicization in other contexts.
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Details
- Title
- Starting at sunrise
- Creators
- Monica Blaisdell
- Contributors
- Michael J. Haslip (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- xii, 249 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- School of Education (1997-2026); Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991022058732904721