Jóvenes, Acción Colectiva y Movimientos Sociales. Hacia Un Balance de la Producción Académica en Ecuador 1990-2022

In this work, a compilation and analysis of research focused on the theme of youth, collective action, and social movements in Ecuador are carried out, spanning the period from 1990 to 2022. The selection of these three terms as guiding axes of the study allows for a flexible and relevant approach to the investigation and analysis of youth participation in collective processes and experiences. The importance of autonomy in the use of terms is emphasized, avoiding the direct association of youth actions with the categories of youth collective action and youth movements. This perspective has been mainly observed in academic studies, where the idea that every movement or collective action in youth universes is exclusively youthful is approached with caution. The study focuses on identifying and examining the modalities of associative participation of young people in various contexts and conditions, distancing itself from the simplistic notion that all youth actions constitute youth movements. A necessary conceptual distinction is proposed between youth collective action, youth movements, and the associative forms of youth involved in social movements. The difficulty of establishing semantic equivalences between youth associative forms and social movements, especially when involving people of different ages, is emphasized. The importance of examining youth collective actions in relation to collective behaviors is highlighted, considering the complexities that arise when attempting to categorize them a priori as youth movements. In the framework of these preliminary considerations, an exploratory and analytical approach is proposed to understand the dynamics of groups formed by young people in diverse cycles and spaces. The initial conceptual caution aims to address the inherent complexities in studies of youth, youthhood, and young people. The questions the paper seeks to answer include a review of research on youth, collective action, and social movements in Ecuador, the conceptual frameworks and theoretical approaches used, and the contribution of these studies to understanding social dynamics. Inquiry is also made into the most recurrent areas of research and those representing gaps in the field of youth collective action. The structure of the work is organized chronologically and by thematic sections, addressing areas such as politics and democracy, citizenship, participation and rights, gender and feminisms, body, ethnicity and identities, as well as digital culture. The objective is to provide greater intelligibility to the issues studied and the emerging theoretical debates.