Young people’s participation in humanitarian aid activities following the 2017 earthquakes in Mexico City

Abstract

Based on interviews, this article examines the motives that led young people to participate in humanitarian aid activities to help victims of the 2017 earthquakes in Mexico City. It presents an analytical framework which sees their use of communications technologies as a symptom of disinterest in political matters. Findings are presented in four parts. The first examines the resources that interviewees utilized in the aid brigades and/or organizations in which they participated before the earthquakes. Variables such as their degree of involvement in political processes at the community (local areas) and national levels are analyzed, as is the nature of their political participation and use of information and communications technologies and digital networks to express themselves and act politically. The second part examines the discourses they utilize (the value systems to which they appeal, or that they contest) in their organizational processes and activism, including discourses on human rights and gender (in)equality. The third part deals with interviewees’ assessments of the actions taken by the authorities and ordinary citizens during the emergency, while the fourth studies the role of emotional aspects in leading them to participate in collective action. Findings show that subjective processes like memory, identity, feelings, and emotions were factors in their decisions to act, but that their experience with, and distrust of, government institutions, the authorities, and traditional forms of political participation, such as parties, also played a role.