Political engagement among ethnic minority young people: exploring new grammars of action

It is often thought ethnic minority and Muslim young people s political participation is even lower than that of other young people. This chapter argues that the evidence for this is rather weak, whilst those studies that do exist do not necessarily sustain such generalised crisis narratives. Furthermore, public and academic discourses on ethnic minority young people have paid insufficient attention to the ways in which ethnic minority young people do politically engage. Drawing on qualitative research with ethnic minority young activists carried out in the UK, this chapter addresses address the varied forms of political action among ethnic minority young people – within and beyond mainstream electoral politics. In so doing, this chapter suggests that the study of political engagement among ethnic minority young people should be situated alongside the changing patterns of political engagement, the significance of globalisation and globalised information communication technologies.