Article abstract text, reading: Culture Wars as a War on the Young: Understanding the UK Culture Wars Through the Lens of Young People’s Political and Civic Resistance Hannah Jones1 · Christy Kulz2 Accepted: 9 June 2025 © The Author(s) 2025 Abstract This article puts forward an analysis of contemporary ‘culture wars’ in the UK, engaging with these ‘wars’ as fundamentally political and material power struggles which are largely enacted on the bodies and lives of young people (among others). Refusing to be drawn in by a widespread scholarly inclination to treat culture wars as simply ideological disagreements, or as tactical froth and distraction, or as rheto- ric to be endlessly debated, this article takes its cue from acts of resistance by chil- dren who fnd themselves at the sharp end of the punitive discipline, disempower- ment and erasure which is a fundamental outcome of the culture war’s performative struggles. By engaging with three specifc case studies of youth-led resistance, we identify and apply the analysis implicit in these acts. Tethering this to the theoretical resources of cultural studies and a historical perspective on the disciplining func- tions of educational institutions, we suggest that understanding the current culture wars as an actual war—on young people and the futurity they represent and on ‘oth- ers’—is a useful analytic for understanding their cultural and political signifcance and for developing a political, cultural and analytical response. We conclude by rec- ognising the coalitional politics that young people manifest, and sometimes literally articulate, to resist the embodied control and erasure enacted on them. We set this alongside a recognition of the ongoing trauma that the culture wars impose on them and society at large. Keywords Culture wars · Young people · Education · Race · Nation · Gender
New article out with @ckulz.bsky.social :"Culture Wars as a War on the Young: Understanding the UK Culture Wars Through the Lens of Young People's Political and Civic Resistance"
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