Youth perspective of activism and volunteering in Argentina

DELFINO, G.; POLITTI, M.

Atenas

Encuentro; 45th Annual Scientific Meeting; 2022

International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP)

This work aims to compare young people's conceptions of activism and volunteering. Traditionally, the main form of political participation in democratic countries was through voting. Today, political participation is conceived as behaviour that seeks to affect, directly or indirectly, government decisions at different levels of the political system. Some authors include volunteering between the various forms of political actions. A qualitative descriptive study was proposed to delve into how citizens consider these two forms of participation and characterize them. A total of 24 young adults from Argentina were divided equally into four focus groups. The Thematic Analysis was used to categorize, analyze, describe, and interpret the speech. It was found that although activism and volunteering are important ways of political participation, they were characterized differently. Activism was considered an activity typical of people with a rather aggressive profile with economic interests generally related to associations and political parties and seeking to meet long-term, intangible objectives for most participants. Volunteering was characterized as typical of relatively passive people whose sole purpose is to help another, generally seeking individual gratification and seeking to meet short-term objectives that are directly experienced by those who participate. In conclusion, it is essential to continue deepening citizens' thoughts about activism and volunteering. This way, we could better understand these forms of participation, their determinants, and their impact on society.