Since mid-2018, youth movements have emerged around the world under the slogan “Fridays for Future,” demanding strong climate protection in the face of global climate change. In Switzerland, this movement has received special support from the “climate strike,” which has launched a wide variety campaigns and is planning others. The goal of this study is to determine the personal and political background of those who identify with the movement, thus offering an empirical overview of its membership, origins and political impact.

With the aim of acquiring a comprehensive overview of the movement, this research project adopts an empirical approach (mixed methods). The study is divided into two parts:

• Quantitative online survey: The first part consists of a quantitative online survey which is to be completed by as many climate-strike activists as possible. Field access will be obtained by means of a procedure used in a previous study (Nachtwey et al. 2020), in which an online survey is distributed via the movement’s social media channels. While this procedure does not claim to be representative, it does yield meaningful results. The questionnaire is based on existing Fridays for Future surveys and includes questions about the sociodemographic attributes of the participants, as well as their motivations, beliefs and personal views.
• Qualitative interviews: The second part of the study draws on qualitative methods. By means of 15 in-depth qualitative interviews, individual aspects of the activists' political orientations will be examined in greater detail. In particular, questions relating to forms of activism and their positioning within Switzerland’s political discourse will be addressed. The selection procedure for the interviews will ensure that the respondents are representative of the heterogenous character of the climate-strike movement, as well as its various campaigns and orientations. The interviews will be conducted and recorded in a problem-centered and only somewhat structured manner using guidelines. In line with the standards of qualitative social research, the interviews will be strictly anonymized during transcription, so that the identity of the interviewees cannot be determined afterwards.

If you are active in the climate strike yourself and would like to take part in the survey or in a qualitative interview, please get in touch at forschung-soziologie@clutterunibas.ch.

This is a research project being conducted at the Department of Sociology at the University of Basel under the direction of Prof. Dr. Oliver Nachtwey, Dr. Iljana Schubert, Dr. Annika Sohre and Dr. Simon Schaupp. The project is funded by the Anny Klawa-Morf Foundation (https://anny-klawa-morf.ch/) and is based at Prof. Dr. Oliver Nachtwey’s chair. The data collected will be used exclusively for scientific purposes and will not be passed on to third parties. The study will follow the strictest data protection guidelines.