Youth As a Seismograph for Societal Problems Sabine Kurtenbach
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Number 1 2013 ISSN 1862-3581 INTERNATIONAL Youth as a Seismograph for Societal Problems Sabine Kurtenbach Over the course of the last two years, 2011 and 2012, youths around the world have pro- tested in a variety of contexts and forms. More than the various manifestations of their protests – from political upheaval in Tunisia or Chile to violence in Syria – it is youths’ worries about their own place in society that unify them. Analysis Even in the most divergent societies, youth are perceived as a problem group, despite the fact that a consistent definition of what constitutes youth has been absent to date. To base such a definition exclusively on age would be misleading: other factors, for ex- ample, social position, would remain unconsidered. No longer children but not yet part of the circle of adults, youths find themselves both physically and socially in a phase of transition. For very different reasons, they rebel against established orders and authori- ties and question existing boundaries and conventions. However, even under very diffi- cult political and economic conditions, youths only head onto the streets en masse when EDITION they see no prospects for the transition into adult life. The forms their protests take re- veal fundamental societal processes and problems. Young people grow up with expectations about the transition into adult life that, be- cause of rapid social change, can now scarcely be realized. The lifeworlds of youths and their problems with the entry into adult life are, de- spite all the differences, comparable worldwide. The mobilization of youths and the nature of their protests are closely connected with the socialization processes and types of cohesion within a society. Whether and how youth are able to complete central transitions into adult life can English serve as an early warning indicator of key societal problems. Keywords: youth, political and social development, conflict, violence www.giga-hamburg.de/giga-focus The Years 2011 and 2012 – A Time of Worldwide participation and entails, for example, active Youth Protests and passive voting rights once one has reached a particular age or participation in other soci- In the last two years, 2011 and 2012, predomi- etal decisions in various contexts (local, nation- nantly young people have protested worldwide al, state, civil society, etc.). against authoritarian regimes; social grievances; Despite historical changes and the different and, most recently, the power of banks and rat- weight assigned to them, these rites of passage re- ing agencies. Some media outlets have compared main important markers along the path into adult these youth protests with those of 1968, when life worldwide. Due to extended formal school- youths in many cities around the world also took ing and vocational training, the life phase “youth” to the streets. Now as then, the question of which has become longer in almost all regions. In those attributes are common to the protest movements places where youths’ transition into adult life is in the various regions has arisen. For one thing, blocked as a result of economic, social or politi- the proportion of young men and women among cal developments, the length of the “youth” phase the protestors is relatively high; for another, the has been extended against the will of these youths. protests are about central questions regarding the It is for this reason that in some societies in Afri- future of society. This applies, regardless of the ca, the Middle East and even Europe 30-year-olds concrete reason, to the protests of the Arab Spring are still considered youths; without their own in- as much as to the Occupy movement in the finan- come, they are economically dependent on their cial centers. parents or families and thus unable to start a fam- ily. In the Middle East, one can speak of a “gen- Transitions into Adulthood eration in waiting” (Dhillon and Yousef 2010). This situation is most certainly an important rea- The term “youth” generally denotes a life stage son for the strong mobilization of youth as part that involves the transition from life in the private of the Arab Spring. However, in other contexts as environment of primary networks (family, clan, well, the process of becoming an adult resembles community) into the public sphere of society. an obstacle course with an uncertain outcome – While the transition from child to youth is closely for instance, where access to appropriate train- connected with puberty and the reaching of sex- ing and education, which is key to economic in- ual maturity, the transition from youth to adult- dependence, is absent. The protests of university hood is tied to the completion of central rites of students in Chile in 2011 and Mexico in 2012 ex- passage. Through the associated processes, and emplify this. sometimes in connection with rituals, youth be- A particular problem is the divergence, under come an active part of the society; responsibility current conditions, of individual and collective for their own lives, as well as for the respective notions regarding the rites of passage into adult community, is handed over to them. The concrete life and the concrete possibilities to actually real- possibilities and conditions for the completion of ize them. Families, schools and community pro- these transitions are historically and culturally de- duce expectations within the framework of social- fined and thus very different. However, there are ization processes, both on the part of youths and three central rites of passage into adult life that on the part of adults, as to the necessary rites of apply worldwide: passage and conditions for complete membership 1) Marriage and the starting of a family: In most in the particular society. In many cases, howev- societies, particularly in the countries of the er, these transitions do not occur due to rapid so- Global South, this was and is the most impor- cial change, economic crises and societal upheav- tant milestone for achieving adulthood. als. The majority of the protests over the past two 2) Entry into the labor market: The resulting eco- years have been driven by the fact that young peo- nomic independence from parents or other fam- ple either view their opportunities to complete ily networks is in many cases simultaneously a central transitions as restricted or want to expand central condition for starting a family. them. 3) Acquisition and exercise of civil rights: This is In almost all regions of the world, exception- dependent to a large degree on the particular al events or developments occurred before the ac- political system and the specific possibilities for celeration of the protests and provided the moti- GIGA Focus International Edition/English 1/2013 - 2 - vation behind them. In Tunisia this was the self- on successive social duties. However, in many immolation of a young vegetable vendor who cases they have no access to education beyond the had been harassed by the police; in Chile it was primary school level. Migration and urbanization the government’s refusal to change the statute of offer a way out. Yet the barriers to transborder mi- the central university; and in London it was the gration are increasing worldwide, particularly at death of a 29-year-old man during a police opera- the interfaces between developing and industrial tion. The initial protests and acts of violence find countries. For instance, the USA has been building many supporters and copycats, who in some cir- an extensive separating wall at the Mexican bor- cumstances have the same, but at times complete- der, and the EU intercepts refugees and migrants ly different, goals. The reaction of the particular on the Mediterranean Sea. Yet event though illegal government and its security forces plays a central migration entails dangers, it nevertheless offers role in the continuation and escalation. A look at opportunities for social mobility and a way out of the lifeworlds in the different regions of the world traditional roles and precarious living conditions makes clear which problems are especially diffi- – for example, a lack of social infrastructure or ed- cult for youths. ucational opportunities. The 2009 Human Develop- ment Report (UNDP 2009: 67) found that migrants, Lifeworlds even in societies where they are forced to move due to armed conflict, can improve their human Despite all the differences, there are three process- development level by up to 23 percent. It is thus es that today influence the lifeworlds of youth: de- little wonder that youths represent one-third of mographic developments; urbanization and mi- transborder migrants worldwide. The number of gration; and, last but not least, globalization. those who migrate within country borders is cer- Demographic changes are a central component of tainly significantly higher, but no internationally the processes of social change. At the beginning comparable data on this phenomenon exist. of November 2011, the United Nations welcomed The year 2010 was presumably the first in hu- the seven billionth world citizen. Both the region man history in which the majority of the popula- in which this child was born and the demograph- tion lived in cities. The most rapidly growing cit- ic realities of the immediate environment will de- ies in the world are located in countries of the cisively impact its life prospects. Industrial societ- Global South – led by Mumbai and Mexico City ies such as Germany have a steadily aging popu- with approximately 20 million residents each and lation. This theoretically improves younger peo- numerous metropolises with approximately 10 ple’s chances in the labor market, but at the same million residents (for example, Cairo, Manila, La- time puts pressure on the social welfare system. In gos, Jakarta). contrast, in the poorest developing countries more Yet for youth, migration and urbanization are than half of the population is under 20 years old.