NOVAS DIREITAS E JUVENTUDES

Abstract

This review analyzes New Rights: Youth Beyond the Extremes, by Beatriz Besen, based on the author's doctoral research on youth activism within the new right in Brazil and Germany. Besen seeks to understand the trajectories, discourses, and processes of political formation of young people engaged in these movements, moving beyond reductionist interpretations. The book draws on post-structuralist theory, youth studies, and debates on neoliberalism to demonstrate how political identities are shaped through experiences, discourses, and power relations. Based on interviews with Brazilian and German young people, Besen argues that political engagement is permeated by values such as family, religion, freedom, nationalism, and self-responsibility, as well as by processes of subject formation characteristic of neoliberal rationality. The review highlights the relevance of the author's analysis by emphasizing the tensions, contradictions, and disputes involved in the construction of contemporary political identities, offering important contributions to the fields of education, youth studies, and democratic studies. By adopting a comprehensive rather than moralizing approach, the book broadens the debate on the meanings of youth political engagement and the challenges posed by the rise of the new right in contemporary societies.

Keywords: new right; youth; political participation.