This article has the purpose of contributing to the understanding of the role that is played by the generation of youth, in the framework of the increase of the collective actions and coexistence of social movements of multiple orientations, taking into account two dimensions: youth's weight in movements that involve different subjects and whose claims have a more general reach, and in what measure they become converted into specific social actors, recognized and self-recognized as subjects themselves. The article verifies that in this stage, the youth has not yet constituted significant social movements with specific generational character, and a hypothesis is formulated about the quick rhythm of the changes that are taking place in our time, pointing to a greater dynamism of the context in which these generations are configured. Such dynamism limits the possibilities of conformity to a defined collective identity, in contrast with other more stable approaches such as gender or ethnics belonging to, or in the face of, more visible and more general social conflicts like the defence of human rights or the environment. However, youth constitutes an outstanding critical mass inside social movements of different character. They have a particular protagonistic role in some of them, and their presence is vital because they represent the future perspective.
youth; generational identity; social movement; youth's participation