Youth leadership in sustainability stymied by entrenched institutions, intergenerational inequity, and global North‑South power asymmetries
Original framing: “Real sustainability means getting serious about youth leadership” — The Japan Times
Indigenous stewardship models, such as Aboriginal fire‑management in Australia and Andean agrarian terraces, demonstrate how youth learn ecological practices through direct participation in communal rituals and land‑based education. These systems prioritize reciprocity, biodiversity, and long‑term resilience, contrasting with short‑term, market‑driven approaches. Recognizing youth as knowledge holders within these traditions restores a dimension of sustainability that the source framing largely ignored.
The dominant narrative celebrates youth as inspirational leaders while neglecting the structural, historical, and cultural forces that shape their capacity to act.
By reinstating Indigenous stewardship, historical youth movements, cross‑cultural conceptions of collective responsibility, scientific evidence on participatory outcomes, artistic‑spiritual sustenance, future‑modelling scenarios, marginalised voices, and a trickster‑critical lens, we see that sustainability requires systemic power redistribution—not merely motivational storytelling. Real progress emerges when youth are embedded in governance, financed through equitable mechanisms, and recognized as knowledge co‑creators within intergenerational, culturally grounded frameworks.