Changing lifestyles and values of

young people
International Youth Researcher Meeting
September 22nd - 23rd , 2009 Vienna
Helena Helve
Professor, University of Tampere
Director WORK-Preca Research Project, Academy of Finland
helena.helve@uta.fi
helena.helve@helsinki.fi
 WHAT DOES YOUTH
MEAN?
 the passage from a
dependent childhood to
independent adulthood
 choices and risks
 age insufficient indicator
 category of youth is elastic
 age is socially constructed,
institutionalized and
controlled in historically
and culturally specific
ways
 Need for historical,
cultural, social and
political research
perspectives
 Need to understand the
processes of transition to
adulthood, youth identity
and citizenship against the
background of demographic,
social, political, cultural,
economic, climate and
technological change
THE CHANGING LIFE-STYLES AND VALUES OF THE YOUNG
PERSISTING TEMPORARY UNEMPLOYED IN
THE DIFFERENT LABOUR MARKETS OF FINLAND
WORK-Preca
WORK AND WELL-BEING 2008-2011. Academy of Finland

 Director: Helena Helve

 Researchers: Jaana Lähteenmaa
(post doc)
 Marjaana Kojo and Anna Sell
(doc. Students)
www.nuorisotutkimusseura.fi/workpreca
 er s–
c are
ple ’s
g peo
y oun
s for tion)
lenge arisa
c hal la préc
New ariat (
c
pre
 After 1990 ´s the unemployment rates high
 Permanently short-term employment/project contracts
 Changing meaning of employment/ unemployment
 Difficulties in future planning
 Differences among the lifestyles, values and future orientations
 Migration alacrity of the YP in the remote areas
 Needs for multidimensional and multidisciplinary research
perspectives
 Social and identity capital of YP
(SoCa BeSS: Helve, Honkasalo, Kokkonen, Kuusisto, Louhivuori,
2004 – 2007, Academy of Finland)

 Family - intergenerational solidarity

 SC of YP develop the society as whole
 Formal and non-formal learning - identity formation
 YP as resource
 Trust-based relationships - new social capital
 New technology – new trust and SC
 Youth and Social Capital (eds. H. Helve & J. Bynner, Tufnell
Press 2007)
 Polarization of young people
(Nuoret ja polariasaatio2008,
Nuorisotutkimusverkosto, julkaisuja 84)

Social and Cultural Challenges:

Loneliness – gender biased

School-bullying
Problems with peers and bonding with peer groups
Sexual harassment – the sexualisation of the culture
Mental health problems
School drop-out, migration background, disablement and early
independence
Juvenile delinquency, unemployment, homelessness, poverty
Unhealthy youth cultures and life-styles

Opportunity: Participation prevent marginalisation

Virtual life: communal life and mental state
of young people

 Need of research on risks and opportunities

Ethical action competence
 Demands of personal  Opportunity: broad
choices, responsible identity horizon -
decision-making and Horizon of hope
action  Need for research on
 Need of human security values, worldviews,
and ethical action citizenship rights,
competence participation,
 Vulnerability - narrow globalization and
identity horizon – environmental and
Identity anxiety social harmony
Challenges and opportunities
 need to evidence base YP as a positive
knowledge for EU politics
role in society
 new approaches and
practices  innovative aspects
 youth cultural research - in youth life
new youth cultures and
cultural lifestyles i.e.
 young people as a
Internet - resourceful
 need of rethinking youth category
New questions for politicians
 What are minimum 'social guarantees' for a young
person at risk with respect to education, and training,
employment, housing, social support and income?
 How relate citizenship rights to responsibilities: What
should they comprise, and in what contexts and at
what age?
 Sub questions: What does mean participation,
globalization and environmental and social harmony
and cohesiveness within a fully participative
democracy?
KEY FIGURES RELATING TO EU DEMOGRAPHY

 96 million young people aged 15-29

 15-29 year olds 19.4 % of the EU total population
 almost 40 % of employed 15-24 year-olds work on a temporary
contract
 NEETs – Not in Education, Employment or Training: more than
one third of 15 to 24 year old ones
 approximately 26 % of unemployed young people have been
unemployed for more than 12 months
 at risk of poverty 19 million children under 18 year olds and 20
percent of young people from 18 to 24
 Need for comparative and longitudinal research
perspectives
 Challenges and opportunities to
European youth research:
 need to evidence base knowledge for EU politics: youth research
and policies are closely connected
 new approaches and practices
 need of rethinking youth
 opportunity to see YP as a positive role in society: youth cultural
research - new youth cultures and cultural lifestyles i.e. Internet -
innovative aspects in youth life
 youth individualisation in biography - young people as a
resourceful category
 historical and contextual processes of different forms of
individualisation in young people’s way of participating in social
integration processes
 evaluation research on political youth initiatives and youth projects
for the “best practices”
 THANK YOU!

To get back to

one's youth
one has
merely repeat
ones follies
(Oscar Wilde)