Transitions as Activism

Abstract This chapter investigates everyday life during the transitions, the emergence of new social movements, and the role of fear and violence in how each transition developed. It proposes a novel approach to generational complexities and their processing. The approach entails drawing a distinction between two ‘microgenerations’ that navigated these developments: a senior one directly connected to the anti-dictatorial struggle and a junior one, radicalized by the fall of the dictatorships. The chapter establishes that this younger microgeneration was more heavily impacted by the transitions. It also explores how young people experimented not only with new lifestyles, as the personal became political, but also with political radicalization, and even violence.