Forget the moral panics. Today's young people are industrious and have high aspirations. The problem is an economy that can't deliver
Young people are increasingly presented in the media as vulnerable or troubled. They are those hardest hit by the economic downturn or disaffected, anti-social hoodies.
The New Local Government Network, has looked beyond the headlines and moral panics. We have explored the values and attitudes of today’s youth to see whether they differ from previous generations in any meaningful way. The picture we paint may come as a surprise to many.
Contrary to the stereotypes, what we found was a generation that is rarely different to those of previous cohorts of young people. When their views did differ, it was not because the young people were less moral than older generations, but often because they tended to be more conservative in their attitudes and actions.
Young people are increasingly sober and self-reliant. In particular, the next generation are industrious citizens with high aspirations and expectations of themselves. The findings of this report suggest that, rather than being concerned about the moral decline of our young citizens, we need to capitalise on the opportunities that these high aspirations present.
However, we have also identified a number of risks that need to be addressed. Future citizens may experience what we call an ‘expectation gap’ – when the aspirational youth of today, have not, and cannot achieve their hopes and expectations.
Given the current economic landscape, we predict that many young people will not get the job or salary they expect and have educated themselves for. There is a risk that this ‘expectation gap’ may lead to resistance, withdrawal or disengagement from society.
Given these findings, local authorities will undoubtedly need to reassess their priorities for the coming years. Rather than anticipating a binge drinking, drug addicted and anti-social next generation, local authorities need to create policies and budgets that seize upon the opportunities that this industrious, aspirational next generation will give them, whilst also managing their expectations. Without this focus, we predict that local areas will increasingly experience problems of social cohesion and a lack of social mobility.
Local authorities can capitalise upon the strong connection to place that we found amongst the next generation. We recommend that local authorities finance ‘place making’ schemes. In particular, we recommend that councils should invest in setting up a local ‘Place Corps’.
Similar in approach and values to the US ‘Peace Corps’, Place Corps would focus on the social, environmental and economic development of the local area and would provide structured opportunities for young people to take responsibility for their place, whether that be through leading on environmental improvements, caring for older and more vulnerable local residents, or providing peer-to-peer mentoring and support for more marginalised young people.
Place Corps could take the form of organised and directed volunteering, or even an innovation fund to which self-organised groups could bid to undertake specific projects. Participation could be incentivised through rewards such as help with the costs of on-going study or training; at the very least, initiatives such as local reward cards that could be exchanged for discounts in local businesses.
Claire Mansfield is the author of Great Expectations: the next steps for a new generation, published today by NLGN, with support from Zurich Municipal
