Although children have prompted and participated in numerous acts of protest and advocacy, their words and labors are more likely to be dismissed than discussed as serious activism. Whether treated disparagingly by antagonistic audiences or lauded as symbols of hope by sympathetic ones, children and teens are rarely considered capable organizers and advocates for change. In Just Kids, Risa Applegarth investigates youth-organized activism from the 1990s to the present, asking how young people have leveraged age as a rhetorical resource, despite material and rhetorical barriers that limit their access to traditional forms of electoral power. Through case studies of antinuclear activism, im/migration activism, and activism for gun reform, this book reveals how childhood both limits and enables rhetorical possibility for young people. Drawing on interviews and focus group discussions with activists, Applegarth probes how participants understand the success and failure of their efforts beyond the immediate moment of impact. Methodologically innovative, Just Kids develops a framework of reflexive agency to make sense of how participants’ activism has mattered over time within their lives and communities.

Risa Applegarth is Associate Professor and Director of College Writing at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and author of Rhetoric in American Anthropology: Gender, Genre, and Science, which won the Outstanding Book Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication.

Introduction    Activism, Agency, and the Temporality of Childhood

Chapter 1        Agency as Embodied: Durable Activism for Peace

Chapter 2        Agency as Perspectival: Vulnerable Undocumented Activism

Chapter 3        Agency as Capacity: Disruptive Activism for Gun Reform

Conclusion      Reflecting on Activism and Age