Paper short abstract:

Through the case of generational conflict in a Norwegian oil-city about the dual role of oil as a carrier of economic privilege and destroyer of sustainable futures, this paper explores the significance of CO2 in the formation of generational identity among youth in a time of climate crisis.

Paper long abstract:

In Norway oil has played a significant role in the narrative of Norwegian progress and in the formation of generational identity of both Generation X and Millennials. Currently youth in Norway and the rest of Europe are making demands on the older generations to ensure major transitions that will mitigate the destructive consequences of carbon emissions from the continued use of oil and other fossil fuels.

This paper explores the significance of CO2 as a novel alternative to oil in the formation of generational identity among youth in present-day Norway. The paper does so by drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among young climate activists and their local community in the Norwegian oil-capital Stavanger. The economic and environmental privilege of Stavanger makes for an especially interesting case as the city and its inhabitants both prospers from and depends on the oil and its related industries, while being acutely aware of the destructive consequences of such industry for the global climate.

What generational negotiations over meaning and authority are at play, when youth and adults imagine post-petroleum worlds and the transitions necessary to realize them? What visions of the future crystalizes when carbon rather than oil is at the center of attention?

By unpacking these questions, the paper shows how age and generation are made meaningful and performed in significant ways by both youth and adults as they imagine and negotiate possible, and perhaps conflicting, sustainable futures.