Futures and education in socio-environmental youth activism

Abstract

Young people are protagonists of the actions carried out by anti-hegemonic social movements. Their socio-environmental activism has an impact on the global struggle against a capitalist model that endangers our planet. This article explores the educational role of the Chilean organizations Viernes por el Futuro (Fridays for Future), Tremendas and Wila Pacha in relation to their visions of the future. A digital ethnography was carried out using a qualitative methodology and an interpretive approach based on a corpus of 591 posts that contain the groups’ discourses on Instagram. The results evidence the conceptualization of a near future that has an expiration date for humanity. The groups’ visions of these futures are supported by scientific, ancestral and territorial knowledge. They also project an imagined alternative future that is based on the dreams and values of the communities that each group represents. For all three of the groups, educating society through digital actions is essential for working towards these alternative futures.