Identity, Grievances, and Efficacy: Explaining Youth Participation in Hong Kong’s 2019 Social Movement

Abstract

Although youth has been described as politically apathetic this claim has been challenged by studies establishing that young people prefer non-institutional and direct forms of engagement. Most social movement research has been conducted in democratic contexts and rarely focused on hybrid regimes. This study applied social identity theory and explored the associations of factors commonly perceived as predictors for participation with young people’s reported participation in peaceful and confrontational types of engagement during the 2019 social movement in Hong Kong. The findings suggest that particularly youth’s collective identity and grievances are linked to the type of activities they engage in, providing implications for public policy and civic education.