Andrew Macdonald

Biography

Biography

Andrew originally joined the University of York in 2013 as a foundation student in the Physics department. Having passed his foundation, Andrew completed the first year of a Maths degree before transferring to the Sociology department.

Having completed his undergraduate degree in Sociology, during which Andrew was also a student rep, Andrew remained in York and completed a master’s degree in social research methods. Having won ESRC funding through the White Rose Doctoral Training programme, Andrew began his PhD in 2020, supervised by Richard Tutton and Tom O’Brien.

For his research, Andrew is interviewing young people aged 16 to 24 about activities related to Youth Climate Activism. This research aims to understand better if/how young people use climate activism to mitigate increasingly uncertain futures and feelings of climate anxiety.

The study also examines how young people use different forms of climate activism to empower themselves within civil society, express forms of lived/active citizenship, express themselves politically and give themselves a voice. Andrew is also interested in how family, peers and adults in authority have reacted to their climate activism.

Education

BA (Hons) - Sociology, The University of York

MA - Social Research Methods, Research centre for social sciences, the University of York

PhD (In progress)- Sociology, The University of York

Research

Research

For my research I am interviewing young people aged 16 to 24 about activities related to Youth Climate Activism.

This research aims to understand better if/how young people use climate activism to mitigate increasingly uncertain futures and feelings of climate anxiety.

The study also examines how young people use different forms of climate activism to empower themselves within civil society, express forms of lived/active citizenship, express themselves politically and give themselves a voice.

I am also interested in how family, peers and adults in authority have reacted to their climate activism.

Teaching

Teaching

For the past two years I have been a Graduate Teaching assistant for the Introduction to Sociological theory module.

Publications

Publications

Macdonald, A. 2023. "Climate change protest: a single radical gets more media coverage than thousands of marchers." The Conversation.

Macdonald, A., 2022. “All these striking kids want is a day off school.”: An examination of the marginalisation of child-led social protest from the 19th Century to the 2019 school strike movement. WRoCAH Journal, 2(6), pp. 38-51