Youth Activism and Political Radicalization. Emotions during the Chilean Student Protests

Abstract

Based on an ethnographic study carried out during the 2011 and 2012 student protests in Santiago de Chile, this article focuses on the role of emotions in the political engagement and radicalization of Chileans students from working class neighborhoods. We argue that the adoption of riskier tactics by youth activists during their engagement is closely tied to the emotional dynamics of individual actors. We therefore seek to understand how such emotional dynamics are constructed and organized, as well as how they unfold, disappear or transform during the protest life-cycle.