Becoming a political subject through affect and social media in feminist student movements in a Chilean school

Abstract

ABSTRACT The last decade was marked by cycles of social movements around the world, where resisting and fighting against neoliberal capitalism and a patriarchal system have been at the centre of political action. In Chile, the Feminist May student movement in 2018 was a turning point and showed the strong and entangled relationship between students, feminism, and social media. In this article, we draw attention to the process of becoming a political-feminist subject in the initial trajectories of a group of secondary students, leaders of a Chilean feminist student organization. The case study was based on ethnographic observation of the school and social media, as well as in-depth and ethnographic interviews with leaders of the organization, the school principal and two teachers. We reflect on the role of affects in digital and political engagement, the negotiations and tensions undertaken by young people in the school context, where they become political-feminist subjects.