Youthquake 2017, 1st ed. 2019
The Rise of Young Cosmopolitans in Britain
Palgrave Studies in Young People and Politics Series

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.

This book investigates the reasons behind the 2017 youthquake ? which saw the highest rate of youth turnout in a quarter of a century, and an unprecedented gap in youth support for Labour over the Conservative Party ? from both a comparative and a theoretical perspective. It compares youth turnout and party allegiance over time and traces changes in youth political participation in the UK since the onset of the 2008 global financial crisis ? from austerity, to the 2016 EU referendum, to the rise of Corbyn ? up until the June 2017 General Election. The book identifies the rise of cosmopolitan values and left-leaning attitudes amongst Young Millennials, particularly students and young women. The situation in the UK is also contrasted with developments in youth participation in other established democracies, including the youthquakes inspired by Obama in the US (2008) and Trudeau in Canada (2015).

James Sloam is Reader in Politics at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. He is co-convenor of the UK Political Studies Association (PSA) specialist group on young people’s politics. His work focuses on youth politics in Europe and the United States, inequalities in political participation, and the role of education in democratic engagement.

Matt Henn is Professor of Social Research at Nottingham Trent University, UK. He is the Research Coordinator for Politics and International Relations and Coordinator of Postgraduate Research in the School of Social Sciences. He has published widely on the subject of young people and politics over the last two decades.

Provides a timely and topical study into young people in the 2017 General Election in the UK.

Fills a gap in the literature on youth political participation with regards to electoral politics, as opposed to a large amount on youth protest movements.

Examines differences in electoral participation amongst Young Millennials, rather than treating them as one homogenous group.