International Youth Year (1985): The global and the local in Argentina

Abstract

The first International Youth Year (IYY) organized by the United Nations for 1985 was a particularly significant event in recent Western history. While it only took place over the course of a year, the factors behind it and its resultant effects produced a set of long-term processes with striking junctures to have occurred throughout the 1900s, in a century in which youth became a social actor with a leading role. In this article we aim to examine several aspects of this situation, based on an exploration of three geographical scales of practices stemming from the IYY. First, we explore the representations and biopolitics of and on youth constructed by the UN. Second, we investigate the institutionalization of the youth category within the framework of the return to democracy in Argentina in the 1980s. We conclude by focusing on the I Multisectorial Congress for Argentine Youth held in the city of Córdoba in 1985, in order to outline other aspects of the visibility set up between the global, the national and the local, contrasting the various social sectors called or drawn to the dialogue with the description-prescription of an agenda on youth problems. Documents consulted include government files, newspapers and interviews.