1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910821578903321

Autore

Gordon Hava Rachel <1974->

Titolo

We fight to win : inequality and the politics of youth activism / / Hava Rachel Gordon

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Brunswick, NJ, : Rutgers University Press, c2010

ISBN

0-8135-4670-2

1-282-24176-1

9786613812889

0-8135-4827-6

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (269 p.)

Collana

The Rutgers series in childhood studies

Disciplina

322.40835

Soggetti

Youth - Political activity

Students - Political activity

Youth movements

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- Introduction -- 1. The Development of Urban Teenage Activism -- 2. Reading, Writing, and Radicalism -- 3. Allies Within and Without -- 4. Toward Youth Political Power in Oakland The Adult Gaze, Academic Achievement, and the Struggle for Political Legitimacy -- 5. Toward Youth Political Power in Portland -- 6. Gendering Political Power -- Conclusion -- APPENDIX: ENTERING THE WORLDS OF YOUTH ACTIVISM -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- INDEX -- ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sommario/riassunto

In an adult-dominated society, teenagers are often shut out of participation in politics. We Fight to Win offers a compelling account of young people's attempts to get involved in community politics, and documents the battles waged to form youth movements and create social change in schools and neighborhoods. Hava Rachel Gordon compares the struggles and successes of two very different youth movements: a mostly white, middle-class youth activist network in Portland, Oregon, and a working-class network of minority youth in Oakland, California. She examines how these young activists navigate schools, families, community organizations, and the mainstream



media, and employ a variety of strategies to make their voices heard on some of today's most pressing issuesùwar, school funding, the environmental crisis, the prison industrial complex, standardized testing, corporate accountability, and educational reform. We Fight to Win is one of the first books to focus on adolescence and political action and deftly explore the ways that the politics of youth activism are structured by age inequality as well as race, class, and gender.