Beyond the digital: understanding contemporary forms of youth activism: the case of Blank Noise in urban India

The new forms of youth activism in the 21st century, due to the global societies‟ shift into a „network society‟ (Castells, 2009) have been an emerging topic in both academic and policy-making circles. Debates around the benefits and limitations of these new forms, usually associated with new media technologies and transnationalism, have risen, but the paper argues that they are premature given the gaps in the existing perspectives used to study the phenomena. The paper seeks to gain a better understanding of contemporary youth movements in the Global South by focusing on a youth standpoint and anchoring the research on the case study of Blank Noise, a collective addressing street sexual harassment in urban India. The analysis delved into the way youth approach social change and organize themselves as a movement, guided by the four elements of social movements (Offe, 2008): issue, mode of action, values, and actors. While there are definitely similarities with pre-existing social movements, the paper argues that the key newness of the case lies in the interconnection between the cyber and physical spheres, the highly individualized ap-proach in its approach to creating social change and internal organizing, the interactivity in producing and sharing content and activities and the facilitating rather than directing role of the leaders. This shows that activism and social movements are not fixed concepts, but rather one that should be deframed and reframed to include the contemporary movements consisting everyday activist youths. The research concludes with an acknowledgement of the challenges faced by the contemporary youth movement, which needs to be revisited in the future as the new movements evolve with time.