Social protest: Social representations of young Mexican adults Protesta social: Representaciones sociales de adultos jóvenes mexicanos

Abstract

Introduction: Social protest has been a tool for the expression of dissatisfaction and
reformist desires to which individuals and collectives recur when seeking political change within their political system. Even though social protest has proven to be effective in different contexts and historical oments, the question now is whether protest continues to be effective in a given social context or if it is already an obsolete tool for the manifestation of nonconformities. Hence, the present study provides an approach to the vision of social protests that a group of young adults from Zacatecas has developed given the experience or contact they have had with social protest. The latter, through an analysis of their social representations on the matter. Purpose: This research aims to explore the social representations that young adults from Zacatecas have about social protest.To achieve this, we made use of the technique of focal groups and an analysis of categories based on Grounded Theory. This allowed us to determine the main concepts related to the representations of protest, which are: violence; media; politics as something obsolete for social change; and creativity in protest. In the analysis, macro-cultural factors are considered in order to propose an explanation of the individualistic character of the representations. Results: The results show a negative attitude towards social manifestation through protest.