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00 FM i-xii 7/18/02 4:01 PM Page i YOUTH FUTURES 00 FM i-xii 7/18/02 4:01 PM Page ii 00 FM i-xii 7/18/02 4:01 PM Page iii YOUTH FUTURES Comparative Research and Transformative Visions Edited by Jennifer Gidley and Sohail Inayatullah 00 FM i-xii 7/18/02 4:01 PM Page iv Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Youth futures: comparative research and transformative visions /edited by Jennifer Gidley and Sohail Inayatullah. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–275–97414–6 (alk. paper) 1. Youth—Attitudes. 2. Forecasting—Study and teaching. 3. Youth—Education. I. Gidley, Jennifer. II. Inayatullah, Sohail, 1958– HQ796.Y5928 2002 305.235—dc21 2001036704 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 2002 by Jennifer Gidley and Sohail Inayatullah All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2001036704 ISBN: 0–275–97414–6 First published in 2002 Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.praeger.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10987654321 00 FM i-xii 7/18/02 4:01 PM Page v Contents Preface: Youth Futures: The Terrain ix Jennifer Gidley and Sohail Inayatullah PART I: MAPPING YOUTH FUTURES 1. Global Youth Culture: A Transdisciplinary Perspective 3 Jennifer Gidley 2. Youth Dissent: Multiple Perspectives on Youth Futures 19 Sohail Inayatullah 3. Future Visions, Social Realities, and Private Lives: Young People and Their Personal Well-Being 31 Richard Eckersley 4. Partnership Education for the Twenty-First Century 43 Riane Eisler 5. Cultural Mapping and Our Children’s Futures: Decolonizing Ways of Learning and Research 53 Francis Hutchinson 6. From Youth Futures to Futures for All: Reclaiming the Human Story 65 Marcus Bussey 00 FM i-xii 7/18/02 4:01 PM Page vi vi Contents Youth Essay 1: Optimistic Visions from Australia 79 Raina Hunter PART II: COMPARATIVE RESEARCH FROM AROUND THE GLOBE 7. Japanese Youth: Rewriting Futures in the “No Taboos” Postbubble Millennium 85 David Wright 8. Reflections Upon the Late-Modern Transition as Seen in the Images of the Future Held by Young Finns 99 Anita Rubin 9. Imagining the Future: Youth in Singapore 111 Alfred L. Oehlers 10. The Future Orientation of Hungarian Youth in the Years of the Transformation 123 Eva Hideg and Erzsebet Novaky 11. Citizens of the New Century: Perspectives from the United Kingdom 131 Cathie Holden 12. Longing for Belonging: Youth Culture in Norway 143 Paul Otto Brunstad 13. Holistic Education and Visions of Rehumanized Futures 155 Jennifer Gidley Youth Essay 2: Voice of the Future from Pakistan 169 Bilal Aslam PART III: CASE STUDIES: TEACHING FUTURES IN EDUCATIONAL SETTINGS 14. From Rhetoric to Reality: The Emergence of Futures into the Educational Mainstream 175 Richard Slaughter 15. Re-Imagining Your Neighborhood: A Model of Futures Education 187 Carmen Stewart 00 FM i-xii 7/18/02 4:01 PM Page vii Contents vii 16. Learning with an Active Voice: Children and Youth Creating Preferred Futures 197 Cole Jackson, Sandra Burchsted, and Seth Itzkan 17. I Don’t Care about the Future (If I Can’t Influence It) 209 Sabina Head 18. Rural Visions of the Future: Futures in a Social Science Class 217 Shane Hart 19. Youth, Scenarios, and Metaphors of the Future 229 Sohail Inayatullah Youth Essay 3: Shared Futures from the Philippines 237 Michael Guanco Concluding Reflections 241 Sohail Inayatullah and Jennifer Gidley Bibliography 245 Index 251 About the Editors and Contributors 263 00 FM i-xii 7/18/02 4:01 PM Page viii 00 FM i-xii 7/18/02 4:01 PM Page ix Preface Youth Futures: The Terrain Jennifer Gidley and Sohail Inayatullah Youth around the globe are struggling to make sense of a world that has lost its meaning for them (both in postmodern Western societies and mixed—traditional, modern, and postmodern—Asian and African societies). Growing into a time of the most rapid change known to history—as evi- denced by trends such as globalization, genomics, global governance, vir- tualization, and terrorism—the line between adapting and falling off is a very fine one. We hear so much about the rise in youth suicide and youth violence, yet many young people have positive—indeed transforma- tional—ideas about the future that go unheard. Furthermore, too little attention is given in contemporary policy-making, education, and commu- nity development to the hopes, dreams, fears, and anticipations of young people. As a global society, we are failing to actively listen to what young people are saying about the future. Instead we stereotype and disenfran- chise them. This lack of dialogue on crucial questions of building less vio- lent, more equitable, and more environmentally sustainable futures indicates insufficient foresight and empathy as well as structural problems in the world economy (in terms of who gets what) and imperialism asso- ciated with cultural hegemony (in terms of who defines reality—what is truth, reality, and beauty). DEFINING THE AREA Youth futures can be defined initially as how young people think about and envision the future (probable, possible, and preferred). Youth itself is defined demographically as those humans between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five. In Chapter 1, Gidley includes critical analysis of how youth are defined, categorized, and conceptualized. 00 FM i-xii 7/18/02 4:01 PM Page x x Preface If we are to go beyond the platitudes of political leaders that youth are the future, we need to explore in a layered manner how it is that we socially construct youth. Thus, while most discourses on youth futures (outside of official press releases) focus on issues concerning youth— unemployment and the environment, for example—we can attribute these discourses to globalization, to the impact on neo-liberal policies on the most vulnerable. At a deeper level, we can explore the context of global- ization, of explaining issues such as unemployment and environment as part of a grander breakdown of industrial civilization, for example, as part of the cyclical nature of the crisis of the West. This layered analysis will be explored in more detail by Inayatullah in Chapter 2. At an even more foundational level, there is a paradox, whereby the “problematique of youth” is also part of the possible solution to the future, in that they, as other disadvantaged, marginal groups, do not share the ethos of the global system. In any attempt to transform global civilizational systems, the ideas and visions of youth must be seen as part of creating a new story, a new myth and metaphor to ground any transformed planetary civilization. Bussey is further develops this approach in Chapter 6. This, of course, is not the conventional frame. Generally, youth are con- sidered by the population as too materialistic, taking society for granted, unconcerned about the future, and unlikely to lead any nation to economic prosperity. They are the problem—in need of discipline, training. They are the problem—current and future criminals. Indeed, philosopher Duane Elgin, in his work on the evolution of humanity, reports that when he asks focus groups the likely age of humanity, they respond: adolescent. By this they mean immature, overly concerned about the present (not responsible for the future), cliquish (strong in-group, out-group cultures), impressionistic (latest fad or style), dangerous (destructive of self and others). Clearly, young is not a highly respected term. And yet, current world culture is essentially focused fighting aging, through genetics and cosmetics. It is about being young again. Thus the contradiction: youth do not represent the future, yet they are the future; “youth” is not respected, yet it is what the older generation aspires to. MAPPING YOUTH FUTURES In mapping youth futures, we have found the following discourses to be dominant: 1. Youth as the future—Communities need to work together to ensure a better future for young people. 2. Youth as commodities—Youth as a market to sell identity to, from Nike to Sega. 00 FM i-xii 7/18/02 4:01 PM Page xi Preface xi 3. Youth as the problem—As the age cohort most likely to engage in criminal activities, drugs. 4. Youth as part of transformation—Because youth are not tied into the current culture, they can innovate and produce new futures—in such areas as music—as well as social and political revolution. 5. Youth futures research—Empirical research on how young people view the future (addressed in more detail in Part II). 6. Youth futures as educational curriculum—Can negative views of the future be broadened and changed using futures methods and tools (addressed in more detail in Part III). 7. Youth and education—How can education transform to meet the needs of young people and future generations? As a balance, this book speaks to all these points by bringing together some of the latest cross- and trans-disciplinary research on youth’s antici- pations of the future from around the world. It combines diverse theoret- ical perspectives and up-to-date research, with exemplars of practical initiatives that address young people’s hopes, fears, and preferred futures. DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES ON YOUTH AND THEIR FUTURES Although most of the contributors to this book do not fall into the youth category, they attempt to break down the barriers to understanding young people’s views, fears, hopes, and visions of their futures.