Despite the Gen Z craze, businesses still fail to grasp young people’s grievances. 

Recognizing emerging cultural narratives. 
The longitudinal ethnographic research within social movements has consistently shown that when young people voice their grievances through public spectacles such as mobilisations, occupations, and sit-ins, they do more than express discontent. They actively challenge the established status quo and outline visions of the world they seek to create. Youth activism and student protests go beyond simple expressions of dissent; they are instrumental in shaping future cultural narratives. Viewing protesting students as dynamic cultural networks, where diverse actors engage in power struggles to define the meanings of their protests, highlights their importance beyond mere political contestation and discursive exchanges.

Before they capture the spotlight as trending topics in marketing reports and flashy advertising campaigns, social movements and their causes are rarely popular when they first emerge. Students are particularly often disparaged, labelled as  ‘troublemakers’, ‘naive’, ‘inexperienced’, ‘woke’, or worse. Despite these adverse perceptions, such movements are instrumental in reshaping emerging cultural narratives.

Towards cultural fluency.
Businesses and organisations spend excessive time analysing Gen Z. Yet, recent consumer boycotts reveal their failure in cultural fluency and in grasping young people’s real grievances and the historical, local, and cultural contexts in which these grievances occur. While boycotts may not have a long-term impact on business, they can often be avoided through a more holistic understanding of the world in which a business operates. 

This involves looking at the concerts of young people without the cloud of stigmatising tropes, distinguishing a good story from science, and actual trends from anecdotes. 

Without a real understanding of the cultural, historical and local contexts of young people’s concerns, analysing and predicting cultural narratives in today’s rapidly polarising world becomes futile.