"This new issue of the Oxford Government Review focuses on ‘The New Generations’, thinking about the ways in which young people are changing – and should change – the world. Each year, the Oxford Government Review features voices from our community – such as our faculty, researchers, students and alumni. This year, almost all the authors are under 40."

The fourth issue of the Oxford Government Review has a bold theme - 'The New Generations'. Around the world, politics is experiencing a generational shift. People born after 1980 face starkly different economic, social, technological and environmental prospect than previous generations. 

Are young people right to feel angry at previous generations over their economic concerns, asks Tom Simpson, or should we scrutinise the assumption that each generation has a duty to ensure the next is better off? The intergenerational debate is sharper yet on climate change, as Thomas Hale notes in his article, arguing that governments must urgently refocus their efforts or climate politics will become a stark question of who gets to survive.

Regulating global tech platforms (Pepper Culpepper), the decline of trust in governments and ‘the elites’ (Nik Kirby), gender (Ángela Anzola De Toro and Anna Petherick) are just some of the issues relevant to the new generations.

Across all these issues, the pressing question for young people is how to make change happen. Is it better to work within the system, or to campaign outside of it? Calum Miller and former MPP student Jeremy Roberts consider the ‘inside or outside’ question and how young changemakers might navigate the options. And our doctoral candidate Jieun Baek reminds us that even in very challenging contexts young people can make a difference, describing how North Korea’s younger generations are indirectly challenging the regime.