Youth and climate crisis: participation and learning in complex, adaptive systems

The Friday for Future school strikes have vividly demonstrated young people's concern for the rapidly deteriorating life and survival chances of future generations of human and nonhuman beings. The young people's ambivalence between despair and hope, feelings of powerlessness and empowerment challenge us to recognise the complexity and dynamic not only of ecosystems but of socio-ecological systems and to question the mechanistic and linear thinking often prevalent in youth research and education science. This thinkbite invites readers to consider young people's experiences with the climate crisis and (climate change) education through the perspective of Complex Adaptive System Theory to open up learning space for more wholesome and creative responses to the challenge.