Youth Citizenship und politische Bildung am Beispiel der Ladyfeste

Ladyfests are feminist-queer art and culture festivals that have taken place on all continents since the turn of the century. As a continuation of the riot grrl movement that emerged in the USA in the 1990s, the authors understand Ladyfests to be "places for learning" civic education that offer possibilities for articulating a youth citizenship. Within this context, youth cultures have been increasingly gaining in relevance. Youth cultures provide young adults with a space for their musical, journalistic and artistic activities and allow not only civic education but also the trying out of collective political forms of participation as well as a critical, self-reflective citizenry. Following a cursory discussion of neoliberal restructuring in citizenship discourses, the authors examine two dimensions of youth citizenship being developed by Ladyfest participants and organizers based on the authors‘ empirical studies of Ladyfests: The first dimension of this youth citizenship comprises diverse feminist-queer empowerment strategies for participating in Ladyfests and the (sub)cultural production of music, media, fashion and art; the second dimension manifests itself in the development of local, transnational and virtual networks through which national identity and citizenship are questioned, "consumer citizenship" is criticized and collective forms of participation in politics and civil society are tested in order for participants to re-invent themselves as a new kind of citizen.