The fight against climate change has mobilized millions of young people around the world, with youth in Finland and Sweden spearheading this struggle. Yet, young climate activists find themselves in a difficult position, as public opinion about the seriousness of the climate crisis has been influenced by the interests of major fossil fuel companies, the over-consuming global upper class, and far-right politics. It is still adults who monopolize institutional politics, financial resources and generally accepted expertise. However, young people want decision-makers to hear them on pressing climate and environmental matters. We investigate the anatomy of joint decision-making with and among young climate activists in Finland and Sweden. The case of young climate activists is considered as a testbed for how the democratic logic of joint decision-making may be combined with the urgency of activism – both in general, and specifically in the inherently dilemmatic climate and environmental issues. To tease apart the specific ways in which the practices of joint decision-making draw from the socio-cultural and linguistic contexts of interaction, we examine these interactions in both Finland and in Sweden. Using theories and methods from social psychology, applied languages studies, and intercultural communication, we examine data from both natural and experimental settings. We aim to: (1) unravel the (multimodal sequential) patterns of joint decision-making in Finland and Sweden and (2) to explore solutions to the discrepancies of stakes between the activists and policy makers. In these ways, we create new knowledge about the social-interactional mechanisms that foster or hinder joint decision-making in the inherently dilemmatic climate and environmental issues. Ultimately, we seek to identify those detailed interactional mechanisms that may foster and hinder the emergence of the genuinely democratic grassroot practices critical to the future of our society.

2025