Youth movements, digital activism and new associative morphologies: the role of the União da Juventude Socialista (UJS) in the post-2013 period

Abstract

This article aims to present the results of research that, through document analysis, questionnaires, interviews and network monitoring, sought to understand how the União da Juventude Socialista (UJS-Brazil) adapted to digital activism especially in the post-2013 period, characterized by intense political polarization. One of the oldest youth organizations in the country, UJS grew and took roots using analog means and organic face-to-face strategies to bring together and organize youth. The analysis of its history in recent years reveals that the adoption of new methods of mobilization via the internet did not replace the previously accumulated experience. Hybrid repertoires were developed by combining online and offline methods, resulting in some ubiquity - a constant presence “on the networks and in the streets”. By describing how UJS adapted to virtual environments, listing potentialities and challenges, this case study sheds light on the impacts of cyberactivism, especially among youth movements, on the reconfiguration of social struggles in contemporary times.