In the 1990s, the expression “lifelong learning” emerged to describe a perspective on personal and professional development that no longer strictly differentiates a moment in life dedicated to learning, and another to working. Ideally, lifelong learning would not just consist in training periods after initial education, but would weave learning and doing in a constant, reflexive loop.

Looking at the projects surveyed within WTFutures, we get a sense of something similar regarding activism: that for Climate Natives¹, some (broadly defined) form of activism is often indistinguishable from life.

Activism indistinguishable from life

What do we mean by that? 

• Firstly, the world in which Climate Natives are growing up has so many unknowns, that one cannot just learn how to fit some predefined space in society: there is no alternative to taking part in shaping this world. Activism is a way of finding meaning out of apparent chaos, of opening up possibilities: it is a sense-making activity for a world that may not make sense to many young people.
• Secondly, one of the most overwhelming feelings regarding climate futures expressed by young people across many projects, is that of powerlessness (see Emotions Reclaimed). Overcoming this feeling is obviously a condition for young people to just “live on”. By providing youngsters with both a community and a role, by building up self-confidence and resilience in the face of radical uncertainty, activism is a deeply empowering experience in a world where these are hard to come by.

By activism, we refer to a very broad range of actions whose intent is to contribute to a political, social, environmental goal on a scale beyond that of each participating individual. They range from everyday gestures to local community initiatives; from injecting meaning in how one does their job, to social entrepreneurship; from birdwatching to taking stewardship of a particular ecosystem; from protesting to creating alternatives, or drafting alternative policies, or taking part in formal institutions… This is indeed a broad definition, but one that, in our opinion, acknowledges the diversity of forms of engagement, as well as the fluidity between them. The young participants in the projects we surveyed are generally aware of the importance of scale. They recognize the limitations of personal action, but they also see a continuity between personal experience and broader change. Most of them would not define themselves as activists, although they go back and forth between high and low-intensity forms of engagement. If activism is part of (post-)normal life, it does not need to be how a person defines themselves.

Intrication between knowledge and action

As a consequence, the vast majority of the projects surveyed by WTFutures create a connection between learning, imagining, speculating, and organizing on the one hand, and on the other hand, advocating, protesting, or concretely producing some kind of change on the ground. These links work both ways: from knowledge-focused activities to action, and from action to knowledge and support.

Intricate links between climate ‘knowledge’ and ‘action’

Although research has questioned it for some time now², there is an implicit model of how individuals are driven to some kind of climate action: first comes awareness of climate change; then knowledge of its causes and effects; then work on motivation, both by helping overcome the feeling of powerlessness and by working on, or with, the cognitive biases that hinder or facilitate the will to act; and finally action, whose direction is indicated by science.

This (admittedly oversimplified) model does not fit well with what the projects tell us. Awareness is pretty much there already. “Science” helps understand what is happening and why, but because we are dealing with complex socio-ecosystems, it does not really tell us what to do – and it definitely does not help people deal with the inconsistency between their personal desire to act (or change) and the way the world currently works. Also, as we saw above, the link between knowledge and action goes back and forth.

Construing activism as a normal part of life is a way to recognize that young people today are all dealing with a mostly unknown future, simultaneously trying to find their own (however unstable) place in it, understand it, imagine it, and experiment at various scales with ways to make it better.

Reflecting on, and supporting, activism

Several projects are specifically targeted towards activists.

Some focus on providing support to activists, in order to help them preserve their energy and impact on the long term: dealing with the difficulty of achieving tangible results, sharing their emotions with a supporting group of peers, adjusting one’s goals to both a clearer vision of their desirable future and a realistic assessment of their possibilities (Éco-Motion). Again, the existence of such projects inscribes activism in the participants’ long-term perspective on their personal life, and not just as something one does when they are young and foolish.

Other projects focus on training activists on a wide range of skills and field of knowledge:

• Personal skills and attitudes, building up the ability for critical thinking, problem solving, as well as the ability to process one’s emotions;
• Relational skills such as deep listening, nonviolent communication, conflict resolution, role playing;
• Collective leadership, organizing skills (from protests to events to local initiatives), crisis management;
• Communication, both face to face and online;
• Fact-checking;
• Futures literacy (see The Future as capability), Climate literacy;
• Social entrepreneurship;
• Understanding policymaking and institutional processes, etc.

This is a long and diverse list. Few people will be able or willing to master all these skills. As in any other collective endeavor, it will call for specialization. Also, most of these skills are clearly applicable to many other circumstances and needs. Activism can therefore become a powerfully efficient and engaging source of “action learning” whose benefits extend well beyond particular forms of engagement.

In providing support, training, and reflexivity to activists, several projects also come to challenge traditional forms of activism, particularly climate activism. How inclusive is it to persons with different backgrounds and needs? How to move away from a moralizing and/or top-down, “listen to the science” approach, and meet other people where they are? How to connect climate issues with others that matter to people, whether social, feminist, anti-racist, decolonial³, etc.? What new forms of action could be more efficient and engaging, perhaps also shifting “from blame to co-responsibility” (Climate Futures in Brussels 2030)? Etc.

“I stopped trying to ‘convince’ people. I started telling my own story, and that invited them into the conversation.”
Net Zero and You(th)

Recognizing the value of activism

Activism, especially towards climate change, is embedded in many types of activities. It is a knowledge-producing, sense-making activity. It helps individuals feel anchored and build up their self-confidence. Yet, while, for example, entrepreneurship is highly valued as a form of learning as well as of personal and professional development, activism is not (sometimes it is even explicitly discouraged⁴).

What WTFuture’s projects tell us is that this should change. How could learning institutions recognize reflexive activism as a legitimate source of learning, providing credits for it, inviting internships in activist organizations and projects? How could work organizations value their personnel’s engagement in citizen and community projects as much as they do their entrepreneurial spirit? How could social security and lifelong learning institutions acknowledge the value of the time spent on activism as much as the time spent in formal, paid work?

Answering these questions would go a long way towards offering Climate Natives a more meaningful path forward for growing up in today’s and tomorrow’s world.

1. A Climate Native is a person who has grown up in a world marked by the prospect, and increasingly the reality, of anthropogenic climate change and its consequences. See Climate Natives.

2. Mark A. Ferguson & Michael T. Schmitt (editors), “Psychology of Climate Change”, Special Issue, Current Opinion in Psychology, December 2021.

3. Decoloniality refers to all the currents of thought, approaches and actions that challenge the colonial legacies embedded in the very structures of our society (in economic, political, cultural, and knowledge systems) and seek to restore the oppressed, marginalized and silenced voices. Thus, decoloniality aims at a structural and epistemic transformation of our ways of living. We recommend this Oxfam document to learn more about this topic.

4.  Chip Cutter  and Lindsay Ellis, “The Boss Has Had It With All the Office Activists”, The Wall Street Journal, August 28, 2025.