Chapter 1 Who are the Global Youth Activists?
College students in Cairo’s Tahir Square, 2011. Our interview is on YouTube.[1]
If youth meet from 10 different countries with different religions and backgrounds, they will have ideas in common, now that globalization is common and cultural boundaries are reducing. The habits include image consciousness, being tech savvy, living life for today, ignoring consequences of their actions, and being reactive. I feel most of them have complaints about restrictions on them or have problems with how their parents don’t get them right. I certainly do believe that there is a global youth [as do others].[2] Some of all youth have the same voice that is to be spread around the world so all the youth can stand together and fight against the differences. Maham, 13, f, Pakistan
Just because I’m young doesn’t mean I’m incapable.
You should take us more seriously. We want to help make decisions.
Middle school students in my 2016 changemaker workshop in California
Contents: Global Youth Activism, Creating a New Human Being, Globally Connected by Media, Generational Differences, Characteristics that lead to Activism, Educated Middle-Class Changemakers
Global Youth Activism
Because of the youth revolutions in the Middle East and the Occupy movements they inspired globally, the public is becoming more aware of the new generation’s power. Forces reshaping the 21st century are youth and entrepreneurship, as Rob Salkowitz points out in Young World Rising.[3] Youth are technological innovators. Think of the young American men who started global Internet businesses like Facebook, Digg, Mozilla, Tumblr and YouTube. A much tattooed American Christian metal band called P.O.D. advocates on YouTube that their listeners “Change the World” by breaking the cycle and speaking up.[4]
Key words that characterize goals of contemporary youth activism are dignity, equality, consensus, direct democracy vs. representative democracy, fearlessness, fun, and opposition to neoliberal economics. Today’s youth tend to be particularly fearless compared to older generations even about their own lives, like Malala Yousafzai who survived a Taliban assassination attempt when she was 14 but continues her campaign for children’s education, albeit from England. Extreme examples are young Tibetan monks who self-immolate to protest Chinese rule or extremist Muslim suicide bombers.
An activist generation, they often achieve revolutionary success; for example, like-minded young people who experienced the fall of the USSR went on to lead the “color revolutions” in Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine that in turn inspired recent revolts from 2010 to the present that led Vladimir Putin to repress opposition voices. Youth may organize as the unsullied moral guardians needed to clean up older generations’ corruption and immorality like China’s Red Guards, Iran’s Basiji Revolutionary Guards (and earlier, Hitler youth). Their efforts to clean up society can lead to “spectacular excess and a politics of terror” like the Red Guards, so it’s not accurate to stereotype all youth uprisings as progressive.[5] Revolutionary governments in China, Cuba, Iran and Ethiopia mobilized youth to shake up traditions such as obedience to parents by sending them away from home to the countryside. My comprehensive list of uprisings with major youth leadership that precedes this chapter includes over 40 events since 2000.
Youth power surged globally when 26-year-old Tunisian Mohammed Bouazizi started off the democracy movement in the Middle East in December 2010.[6] The only job he could find was selling fruit and vegetables from a cart, but police hassled him about that, wanting bribes worth more than what he earned. Like other young adults in the region, he struggled with poverty, lack of opportunity, and government corruption. In frustration and desperation, he set himself on fire in front of a government building and sparked a revolution. His later death in a hospital set protests in motion that ousted the Tunisian dictator and led to a new government. Police violence is a common thread in global uprisings, serving to galvanize broader support for the protesters.
Sixty percent of Africans are under age 25, so it’s no surprise that the uprisings spread quickly to Egypt, where a peaceful revolution led by youth toppled a powerful dictator in only 18 days. The Egyptian protesters were disciplined and committed to peace, a good example for youth movements in other countries. Rather than attacking authorities with guns, they yelled profanities, shook their shoes at President Hosni Mubarak in a sign of disrespect (as happened to President George Bush in Iraq), and threw stones as defense against attacking police. However, sexual harassment of women on the street is a chronic problem in Egypt, similar to India where it is called Eve teasing, so youth can’t be put on a pedestal as paradigms of virtue.
The young revolutionaries’ success sparked demonstrations throughout the Middle East, heightened by anger over rising food prices and high youth unemployment, and youth-led uprisings spread globally. BBC reporter Paul Mason observed, “At the centre of all the protest movements is a new sociological type: the graduate with no future,” due to the global recession beginning in 2008, the public costs of looking after the elderly, and the costs of climate change.[7] The recession of 2008 motivated the uprisings because of dashed expectations built up during globalization and the spread of social media that permitted individual expression and the possibility of freedom learned from the Tunisians. Economic and political frustration plus hope, confidence, and the ability to communicate equals revolution.
Enabled by their use of technology and free social media (over half of them add online content every week), Millennial author David Burstein points out his generation has already made significant global change. “We’ve toppled dictators, helped elect a president [Obama], created social networks that have connected the world, forced businesses to adopt a social agenda broader than profit—and all before most of us have turned thirty.”[8] Burstein told me in a phone interview that Millennials have a “passion for making a difference” by building large online activist organizations such as Facebook’s Causes (the largest online activist platform with over 100 million users), Mobilize.org, Ourtime.org, and DoSomething.org. The latter claims to be the largest US nonprofit for young people and social change, with 1,425,974 million members who “kick ass on causes they care about” such as bullying or homelessness.
Michele Obama told South African youth that, “young people are leading the way,” through serving in the military, teaching in disadvantaged schools, and volunteering in their communities. Her viewpoint is backed up by a Viacom survey of 15,000 young people in 24 countries: Most (84%) believe that their age group has the potential to change the world for the better.[9] At no time in history have more youth lived under some form of democracy and has the proportion of youth been so great, increasingly the likelihood of movement away from dictators like Ben Ali in Tunisia who youth told to “get lost.”
Most academics I’ve encountered think youth leadership is widely covered simply because the role of youth in the front lines is widely known. An anonymous academic who reviewed this book attempted to list such books, but all were written before the recent uprisings or don’t actually include youth, as discussed in the introduction. It’s time to write “history from below” and include the voices of movement participants, as recognized by the editors of Understanding European Movements.[10] Some academics disdain truly global studies, preferring anthologies of in-depth local ethnographies. For example, a global studies professor who reviewed this manuscript suggested, “Focus in on one area, perhaps on your literacy work in Pakistan,” which of course escapes the theme of global youth culture among educated youth.
Generations Y and Z are unique in their global connectedness through electronic networking, which makes them more tolerant of diversity than their elders. More educated than their parents, by 2011 global college enrollment increased to 31% of young women and 29% of young men, according to UNESCO (up from 19% for both sexes in 2000). In an era when women are the majority of university students except in Africa, youth are increasingly comfortable with gender equality and ethnic differences. They will be half of the world’s workforce by 2025, defined by their passion to do good.[11] Former President Barack Obama observed, “Our young people are more educated and more tolerant, and more inclusive and diverse, and more creative than our generation, more empathetic and compassionate towards their fellow human beings than previous generations.”[12]
A global marketing study of 15,000 young people from 24 countries found what defines them is a sense of global community, tolerance, and desire to share and connect—an indication of how they’ll shape our future.[13] Shaped in their childhoods by the Great Recession of 2008, they became aware of human suffering. Their generation is also marked by fear of terrorism after the World Trade Tower bombings on 9/11/2001, the threat of mass shootings by young men, and ongoing wars. These events seen on TV lead to awareness of human suffering and the desire to alleviate it.
Tech journalist Ryan McCready countered the common criticisms of self-centered Millennials in the US in an article titled, “Millennials Don’t Suck, You’re Just Old and Hate Change.” [14] He pointed out that he and his generation innovated new ways to “live, love, and work.” He characterizes his generation as “entrepreneurial, resilient, accepting and charitable,” and able to change quickly to match the rapidly changing world around them. They have to deal with the recession and high unemployment rate double that of older people over, resulting in 20% of youth living in poverty. Oxfam reported in early 2017 only eight men (six Americans and one Spaniard and one Mexican) had as much wealth as 3.6 billion people.[15] Director Winnie Byanyima said, “Across the world, people are being left behind. Their wages are stagnating yet corporate bosses take home million dollar bonuses; their health and education services are cut while corporations and the super-rich dodge their taxes; their voices are ignored as governments sing to the tune of big business and a wealthy elite.” Pushed to be entrepreneurial by growing economic inequality, two-thirds want to start their own business rather than rise up the ranks of an established business. They create companies at twice the rate of Gen Xers and Boomers did when they were young adults. In a 2015 Gallop poll of students in grades 5 to 12, 25% reported they planned to start their own business.[16]
They’re not lazy, according to McCready. Technology keeps them always checking on work emails, but they like flexible work hours so they can balance work and life. They’re more likely to have a college degree than older generations, almost half of the graduates studied in the STEM fields, and many are burdened by large student debts. All these influences delay traditional adult actions such as moving out from their parents’ home, getting married, having children, and buying homes. They also stay home longer because many consider their parents best friends and talk daily. McCready thinks relationships are their priority, but not necessarily marriage partly because many of their parents divorced. They care more about being good parents. His statements are in fact corroborated in many of the studies cited in my global youth book series.
When young people were asked by the youth NGO TakingITGlobal about the roles they play in society, young people in all regions selected the student role as the most important, but the “activist” role was second in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa–followed in Africa by the “victim” role in third place. Some of the ways young activists exert influence are to start projects and organizations, act as lobbyists and campaigners, promote awareness of social and environmental issues through their own media, tutor other students, and serve as volunteers and entrepreneurs.
Activista is an example of an organization with thousands of youth volunteers in more than 25 countries.[17] A global organization of young professionals called Restless Development trains young people to volunteer in their communities to reduce poverty, “improving their civic participation, livelihoods and sexual health.”[18] Many charities were founded by North American youth to help children internationally as well.[19]
In his book How to Run the World, Parag Khanna (named a Global Young Leader), predicted Generation Y will “own mega-diplomacy” because they make up the majority of the world’s population, understand faster communication, and believe in “postmaterial values such as equality and ecology.”[20] Khanna reported that 40% of college graduates say they want to “go out and change the world,” up from only 18% two decades ago. An example, Kevin (18, m) from Trinidad and Tobago would like his government to, “Enact legislation for gender equality, sexual orientation rights, harsher punishments for white-collar crimes and focus on the equitable distribution of resources.” Realistically, he asks, “Only in a fantasy world, right?”
SpeakOut respondent Roohi explains the connection between globalization and youth activism. She’s a 17-year-old from Singapore, of South Indian background:
Youth are the future of every nation. The future is in the hands of today’s youth and being firm in their beliefs is the only way a change can happen. With regards to youth and activism, globalization and the explosion in Internet users, social network users and such, it’s become incredibly easy to spread ideals, views and information to people throughout the world. Physical distance just isn’t as important anymore, what with the advent of online petitions which people around the world can sign and pledge to. Videos and photos involve youth emotionally and everyone wants to do something to save the earth or help those in need. What people don’t realize is that you can’t just sit there and do nothing. Simply caring about a cause you believe in is not enough. At the very least, spreading awareness is something everyone can do.
The problem is, many feel that they can’t do anything if they aren’t in a position of power, or that activism and all is fine as long as your career doesn’t get affected or your chances of getting into a college. Because ultimately everyone needs to have a stable home with a paying job. Youth simply need to find the right balance and should not compromise their beliefs or what they stand for. This includes all kinds of activism, from environmental to social to political.
Being an activist can become an identity that motivates political action. Cultural studies recognize the importance of identity formation and emotions such as the common theme of anger about lack of dignity that motivated recent uprisings. Youth identities are signified by clothes, slang, symbols, and action. For example, the culture of the US peace movement by hippies in the 1960s is well-known: Photos of the famous Woodstock, New York, music festival in 1969 illustrate these styles.[21] Recent youth activists signal their identity with T-shirts with slogans or the image of Che Guevara’s face (the most popular revolutionary image), and a rubber bracelet signifying a particular cause. They flash the old V-for-Victory sign with two fingers or the new three finger rebel salute from The Hunger Game films, listen to hip-hop music, text meeting plans on their cell phones, post videos of demonstrations and police violence on YouTube, and chant “Enough.” Many protesters around the world carry their national flag, wear masks, set up tent cities in city squares, and carry vinegar or lemons to counteract police tear gas in a global culture of activism.
Youth have always been in the forefront of rebellions, partly because evolution encourages youth to band together to leave their parents and risk going out on their own. Nature needs baby birds to leave the nest. Some find group identity in their social activism with like-minded friends, particularly in universities where students can easily communicate, congregate and mobilize. “Educated youth have been in the vanguard of rebellions against authority certainly since the French Revolution and in some cases even earlier,” pointed out sociologist Jack Goldstone.[22] Human brains aren’t fully mature until around 25 so youth can be more impulsive and emotional than their supposedly more reflective elders. Not having spouses and children frees them to take risks. Seema Patel, a global development consultant who participated in a USAID Internet discussion, acknowledged their risk-taking inclinations:
Youth have power. Around the world there are reverberations of the youth fighting for democracy, political and civil rights; organizing for peace and environmental causes, leading community change. Why is it that the young are able show this kind of power over and over again? Is it because they measure risk differently than adults, is it a natural desire to grow and improve, is it because they can find their natural peer communities, is it because rebellion comes more easily?
Creating a New Human Being
BBC journalist Paul Mason believes that young rebels are a new kind of human being with new values and new technologies, different from their parents’ generation. He observes that in the youth revolutions of 2011, “We’ve begun to see the human archetypes that will shape the 21st century. They effortlessly multitask, they are ironic, androgynous sometimes, seemingly engrossed in their bubble of music—but they are sometimes prepared to sacrifice their lives and freedom for the future.”[23] Marxism taught that when the material conditions are right, a New Man and New Woman will evolve, as attempted in Cuba. Under Fidel Castro the government tried to create a socially responsible person by putting babies in group playpens and rewarding students with cleaning up after lunch and doing other acts of service. Individualism was discouraged.
Emilio, a 17-year-old activist in Argentina, explained, “So, today we’re constructing something different. And, in the process, a whole new language and new forms of expression come into being. Horizontalidad, direct democracy, sharing and . . . organizing in networks. . . .”[24] Key practices in the 12 years of direct democracy in Argentinian communes include: horizontal rather than hierarchical organizing, dignity of self-governance, importance of process, equality of women, and supportive and loving relationships. They create a new empowered person. As Greek occupiers of Syntagma Square said, “We are searching for a new kind of world through forms of struggle that we will invent ourselves.” Indignados of the Spanish 15-M uprising of 2011 advocated, “The squares should be spaces without money, without leaders and merchants, they are the seeds of a new world and the only power that they recognize is that of the assembly of your neighborhood or town.”
European countries have different descriptors for what the US calls Millennials and the UK and Australia calls Gen Y: Sweden’s Generation Curling (named for parents clearing all obstacles for their pampered children leaving them unable to cope with difficulty), Norway’s Generation Serious (fearful of terrorism), Poland’s Generation John Paul II (upset by the Polish pope’s death in 2005), Germany’s Generation Maybe (well-educated, globally connected, but unable to commit faced by many options), Greece’s Generation of 500 euros (the government salary paid to young workers) and Spain’s Generation Ni-Ni or Mileuristas (who neither work or study or learn low salaries).
Chinese call them ken lao zu, “the generation that eats the old” for living off their parents, and Japanese call them nagara-zoku, “the people who are always doing two things at once” or the Relaxed Generation who live with their parents. An Indian SpeakOut youth reported he hears his peers called Generation Next in reference to their entrepreneurship. Others call them Generation Terror because they grew up after 9/11and the war on terror, Echo Boomers because they have some of the same values and large size of the Baby Boomers, or Generation Debt ($1.3 billion student debt) in the US and Generation [high] Rent in the UK and Australia where young adults fear they won’t be able to buy a house and have to pay high rents. Millennials in the US are referred to as the Ben Franklin Generation because they’re cautious investors rather than big spenders.[25]
Globally Connected by Media
Most of the 25,000 World Youths surveyed in 2010 expressed satisfaction with “the age in which I live,” especially Indian young people.[26] People ages 16 to 29 have a “new consciousness” that they sometimes refer to as the “hive mind,” brought about by globalization’s electronic communication that creates a “global flow of emotions.” Resonance and viral infection are words used to describe how culture and the style of uprisings spread around the globe. Describing what shapes their identity, youth reported that their global humanity (81%) is more influential than their nationality (70%), ethnic group (53%), or their religion (43%). Education and profession are most important influences shaping an individual’s personal identity, especially in emerging countries.
New issues brought by globalization that impact young people are a global economy that quickly responds to an event like a fall in the Chinese stock market, the hidden economies of trafficking in drugs and people, environmental pollution, global media and ICT, the declining power of the nation state and the increase in transnational ideologies such as Islamic fundamentalism or the horizontal direct democracy youth movement.
The editors of the journal New Global Studies explain their purpose and indirectly mine in writing this series about global youth who are ignored by scholars:
Only comparatively recently has human global self-awareness broken through the confines of scholarly specialization, and begun to enter the everyday popular life, action, psyche, imagination and consciousness on a mass, global scale….These efforts tend to be piecemeal and specialized, staying within particular disciplinary boundaries. This journal exists to address the process going on around us as a whole, and developing over time. It addresses globalization with a holistic perspective.[27]
International leaders of AIESCE, the largest global university student organization, advocate democratic regional organizing by youth because, “Youth have a role in developing innovative new solutions that will change the global landscape and focus on more globally relevant solutions.”[28] AIESCE points out that of the world’s seven billion people, only about 10% live in the West. This fact is highly relevant to increasing youth concern with global issues due to the rise in the cost of food, and scarcity of water and climate disruption. These scarcities cause discontent in developing countries, similar to causes of the European revolutions of 1848. The youth-led uprisings of the 19th century shared information with their new media–newspapers. AIESCE advocates that youth must come to the forefront with their new media because: “These future leaders have immense potential to mobilize the masses, and be the major stakeholders and policy makers of the future, and cross generational divides.”
As an example of this leadership, tracing the transnational production and selling of t-shirts in a global economy, international finance professor Pietra Rivoli’s Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy (2006) explored how college student activists have pushed manufacturers to embrace environmental responsibility, such as by making shirts with organic cotton and using wind-powered spinning mills. Thus globalization and youth activism can be a positive force for change or destroy local traditions.
Globalization leads to blended cultures and new youth identities. Youth use music and clothing styles to form subcultural identities, sometime in opposition to dominant culture, like punks or bikers. This global youth culture movement is called “liquid modernity” by Polish scholar Zygmunt Bauman in his book with that title (2000). The documentary Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night (2005) explorescall centers where Indian telemarketers attempt to come across as American, showing the hybrid effects of globalization, as does Remote Sensing (2001), a video about women sex workers who are trafficked across the globe. Other examples of globalization, the Chicago Bulls basketball team is popular in Brazilian slums and in African villages. Hip-hop music is sung in local languages around the world in opposition to some Muslim clerics who teach that modern music is sinful, and consumption of American fast food is popular with local variations. I’ve seen McDonalds and KFC in most countries I’ve visited.
A large survey of “World Youth” reported that in most countries, a majority of youth believe that what happens in the world has an impact on their lives, with the exception of young people in Finland, Romania, Morocco, Israel, and India.[29] Another sign of their international outlook, youth are more likely than their elders to trust the UN and other international organizations. Mandred Steger refers to this consciousness of belonging to a global community as the “global imaginary.” The visual symbols of this international perspective are explored in his Visual Archive Project of the Global Imaginary.[30] Founded in 2009, it “explores the interplay between visual culture and globalization.”
The editor of the World Youths study predicted that youth’s global consciousness will replace class and national consciousness, perhaps leading to a Western-influenced humanist “cosmopolicy.” However, case studies contradict his conclusion, such as a study of middle-class young Jat men in India found they were ambivalent about being part of a global middle class, as they identified with the qualities of their caste and lineage as farmers.[31] They contrasted their pragmatism and masculine strength with Westernized urban upper classes they referred to as “silver spoons” who they didn’t wish to emulate. This male pride in being macho limited Jat young women’s ability to be involved in student politics.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter, pointed out in 2010 that for the first time in human history mankind is politically informed and aware of global inequalities and lack of equal respect for other humans. People yearn for human dignity in what he called a “global political awakening” sparked by American imperialism and global mass communication.[32] Dignity was in fact a frequently used word in youth uprisings after 2010. Brzezinski warned that youth in the Third World are especially restless, impatient and resentful, concluding that the youth bulge is a political time bomb threatening the global hierarchy headed by the US. Students clustered near colleges in developing nations and connected via the Internet are enabled to foment change. Brzezinski accurately predicted, “Typically originating from the socially insecure lower middle-class and inflamed by a sense of social outrage, these millions of students are revolutionaries-in-waiting.” He added that their “physical energy and emotional frustration is just waiting to be triggered by a cause, or a faith, or a hatred,” which did occur in the Arab Spring that began in Tunisia in 2010.
Brzezinski pointed out that the global political leadership has become much more diversified with the rise of Asian powers and the decline of the European powers, and thus more complex without control by one superpower like the US. The Global Trends 2030 report by the US National Intelligence Council predicted that Asia will become the world’s superpower with China being the top economic power, with India also in ascendency.[33] Thus we need to listen to and learn about Chinese and Indian youth in particular.
Parag Khanna predicts that the future will be led by a coalition of efficient public and private partnerships of governments, NGOs, international agencies, and corporations engaged in regional diplomacy. He points out that companies are half of the 100 largest economic entities in the world, and eight of the ten largest currency reserve holders are based in Asian countries, shifting power away from western governments. Examples of the new non-governmental diplomats are the World Economic Forum, the World Social Forum and the Clinton Global Initiative.
A proliferation of media sources makes youth aware of the lies and moral failings of political, religious, and business leaders. Accused of being moral relativists and narcissists, Millennials see that opposing claims of moral truths can’t be trusted so they do tend to look at values as an individual choice. For the same reason, they don’t trust large institutions such as government or religious groups, although they want their governments to take action to improve education and alleviate poverty. Instead, they trust and value individual relationships with family and friends. They can be called the Egalitarian Relationship Generation, as elaborated by Sneha (16, f. India), “Our generation mostly values friends higher than family, which has both positive and negative sides. We also know how to live and not just merely survive. But in that process we have lost all the worth we had for health and wealth. We also don’t know what real love is.”
The Pew Research Center surveyed over 1,000 tech experts about what the effect of “hyperconnected” young people will be by 2020. Over half of the experts (55%) think young people’s brains are wired differently, able to “supertask” and access Internet information to answer “deep questions.” The other experts think the ICT effect reduces ability to do deep thinking and relate to people face-to-face, creating a generation impatient and wanting to be entertained by instant gratification.[34] However, almost 4.4 billion people don’t have access to the Internet, most of them in developing countries.[35] Also at least 1.8 billion Web users live in countries that censor the Internet.
The Pew Research Center reported that Millennials have fewer attachments to religious and political organizations, but connect with friends and affinity groups through social media.[36] Half of them describe themselves as political independents, 29% are not members of a religious group and they’re generally less trusting of others by much higher percentages than in older age groups. Although less economically advantaged than previous generations at the same age and less likely to be married, they’re optimistic about their futures. When asked to describe their generation, the most frequent responses were hard-working, idealistic, compassionate and self-reliant.[37] They’re more self-critical than other generations, more likely to say they’re self-absorbed, wasteful and greedy.
Global media enables young people to be inspired by innovators in various countries. Lainey (14, f, Maryland) said, “I’m influenced by global media by seeing people supporting things they care about, and that’s what I want to do. I want to stand up for what I believe in.” Kamakshi, a young Indian law student (17, f) told me, “Global media is the only means to stay aware of what is going on 100 miles from us. It is the lifeline in today’s world. Being an Indian, I’m still excited about the presidential elections in the US. Global media is the best way of staying connected.” Our interview is on The Global Youth channel on YouTube.[38]
From Pakistan, youth leader Hassan (18, m) observes,
I think the society today is getting vibrant. The media has come in play which is helping a lot in spreading awareness about global issues such as women’s empowerment, less violence, political awareness, etc. People have access to each other; due to technology we get to know about the whereabouts of each other. People want to see a change in the country. For that change, the youth is the key. When I meet new young people, I see a hope in them. They’re so thoughtful, full of energy and abilities.
Youth spend much of their time with peers in school now rather than with family and elders, while ICT also spreads new ideas. Anna (18, f, Ukraine) observed, “My generation is more technologically addicted and less determined by the future. We live in the world where anything can happen and the opportunities are unlimited, the information is spread in a finger snap. The previous generation takes more time to adjust and make a decision, therefore it makes them less flexible.” Globalism spreads media almost everywhere in a “space-time compression” enabled by ICT. Yuan, a Chinese SpeakOut student, grew up watching US media. As a graduate student in Finland, he observed,
“Finland is very Americanized. So many TV shows they know like Grey’s Anatomy, America’s Next Top Model, CSI, South Park, and Once Upon a Time.
With globalization and migration, narrow categories like class and developmental stage are modified, as global media creates more fluid and mixed influences on youth combined with local culture. This dialogue between global and local traditions is what scholars call hybrid, creole, bricolage, transnational, and hyphenated cultural influences on youth identity.[39] The “glocal” approach looks at local influences interacting with the message of global culture–be a consumer. Youth are often innovators, bringing global popular culture to their local networks. They adopt and initiate new global trends in their localities, such as hip-hop music that originated in African American neighborhoods in New York City sung in their local language.[40]
SpeakOut student Kaoutar (28, f, Morocco) observes generational differences in globalization:
My generation is more open-minded with an international vision basing on national thinking. In contrast, my parents’ generation were nationalists limited to their family and to the interests of their native country. Today, we are living in an era of globalization, a world where everything is in a constant changing and everything is possible. Thus, we are in the obligation to adapt our lives, present and future, to interact with the whole world and all generations by respecting them but also by expressing our own ideas without any fears.
We are in a period of time where everything is going fast, our lifestyle, education and also communication. Our generation is powered by new technologies, used to be connected instantly without any barriers. We are enjoying easier and more comfortable lives and appreciating our parents’ moral and financial support. Thus, my parents’ generation had harder lives impacted by wars and crisis.
Some scholars focus on intersectionality of influences on youth identity and culture, drawing from feminist intersectional methodology and its recognition that identities are shaped not only by gender, but also by race, nationality, sexual preference, age, religion, and so on. Australian scholar Rob White points out that recent sociology of youth recognizes that youth identity is complex, malleable, multiple and hybrid.[41] Hybrid is the word most frequently used to describe youth subcultures. My photograph of a graduate student in Upper Egypt illustrates hybrid influences: she’s wearing four layers of hajib, makeup, and a shirt that reads “A Sexy Dress: Spiral Girl Products.”[42] A short video also illustrates this point showing western and Indian influences on fashion choices in New Delhi.[43]
While global influences affect the lifestyles of youth everywhere via ICT and the expansion of the middle class and its aspirations, local environments color these trends. Regional differences are influential such as the power of clans and militias in Libya, the economic power of the military in Egypt, organizational strength of labor unions in Tunisia, anarchist history in Spain, Greek debt crisis, and privatization of education in Chile. The West defines adulthood as being independent from one’s parents, while in more traditional cultures the married couple lives with the husband’s family and individualism is discouraged. German professors Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim argue for a “cosmopolitan sociology” instead of a universalistic general one, to analyze “a multiplicity of global generations that appear as a set of intertwined transnational generational constellations.”[44] Generational differences, a comparison of Gen Z and Y, very young activists and a large and poor generation are discussed on the book website.[45]
Another cause of global hybridization is the number of young migrants: In 2013 28.2 international migrants were ages 15 to 24.[46] UNDP reported that 32% of all international migrants are under age 30. Some flee war- or gang-ravaged countries in the Middle East, Africa and Central America in the largest refugee crisis since World War II. Amnesty International reported that over 65 million people were forcibly displaced by fall 2016 and most are housed in developing countries. Some young migrants are part of the brain drain from countries with high youth unemployment, such as in southern Europe. Many other young people attend schools and universities in other countries, especially numerous are Chinese and Indian students. Youth are around 20% of international tourists. Migration can be liberating for girls (46% of migrants ages 15 to 24) who are able to escape early marriage and other constraints.[47] Migrants usually remain close ties with their country of origin and convey information back and forth. Some scholars see migration as “ a kind of social movement that contests nation states, national boundaries, identities, and inherited privileges.”[48] Migrant squatters, like those in many European cities, represent a “new kind of cosmopolitan disobedience.”
Characteristics that Lead to Activism
Impatient
As Atharva, 13, m, India, observed, his generation is “more fast-paced and can understand problems and situations quickly.” “Young people are increasingly driven and empowered change agents, working to make positive noise,” stated Ronan Farrow, the first director of the Global Youth Issues Office in the US State Department. He characterized young people today as impatient, unfocused, risk-takers, brash and disobedient—the traits that lead to change: “Sometimes we act like the rules that don’t apply to us.”[49] A young Bulgarian protester, Pencho Dobrev agreed youth are impatient, “We have to stand up because our parents were sleeping. . . They were just happy they could listen to the Beatles without going to jail. We are not as patient as our parents….We want change now, not tomorrow.”[50] Egyptian activists told me the same thing about their parents sleeping. The question is can they not only overthrow dictators but organize lasting egalitarian societies?
Three years after the Egyptian revolution, discussion of a generation divide emerged, with elders wanting stability and tradition in the person of General el-Sisi, elected president. Some view their peers as seduced by their love of speed to act irresponsibly, as Marwan (17, m, Egypt) said, “The generation of my parents is used to doing things the hard way and having a sense of responsibility, but my generation wants the fast, easy way to get what we want, and few of us have a sense of responsibility.”
Reactionary old politicians called youth hooligans and terrorists while appreciative elders called them the miracle generation that toppled Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak in only 18 days. He referred to them as “noble youth” in his last speech to the nation. A teacher held up a sign in Spain’s Plaza del Sol demonstration in 2011 that read: “The young took to the streets and suddenly all the political parties got old.” Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff, a former Marxist guerilla, said Brazil had a “historic opportunity” to harness the energy from the youth-led protests in 2013 and that it was her duty to “listen to the voice of the streets.” Some disrespectful youth responded with a Twitter hashtag “Shut up Dilma.”
Young people want to be heard and they want progress to happen quickly, being used to quick results on the Internet. Comfortable with the fast pace of change, they fault adults for their lack of adaptability, as Vishwa (17, m, India) said: “The changes in the world are much faster right now than ever before. I wish that adults accepted them faster without so much hesitation and get accustomed to the newer ways of life faster.” Millennials are scornful of slow-moving bureaucratic hierarchies. There’s no General or Command Center on the web and group consensus or peer recommendations are often valued over credentialed experts.
Some of these characteristics of defying authority and impatience with slow-moving bureaucracies may be true of any generation of young people; some of the free speech and anti-war activists of the 1960s no doubt settled into staid and conformist lives as they got older. However, this generation’s access to electronic communication is unlike that of any previous generation and gives them a broader worldview. They expect open discussion of social issues. Indian revolutionary Gandhi explained that dictators require fear and tacit consent in order to rule, while Millennials are often brave and willing to defy authority as they do in uprisings, graffiti, music and blogs. Taiwanese students carried signs telling the president “You suck” and Egyptian graffiti and tweets said “Fuck Mubarak,” followed by the same insult to Presidents Morsi and el-Sisi. Even one-party China faces daily uprisings and protests as people use proxy servers to bypass censors and access the Internet to discuss problems like corruption, pollution and rural land grabs.
Egalitarian
Representing the most egalitarian generation, a panel of young Global Shapers at the World Economic Forum in 2012 emphasized the need for equity, seen on a video.[51] Khue (16, f, Viet Nam) stated, “We tend to pay too much attention to difference in religion, nation, race, etc., but I think basically we are all the same with similar needs and desires.” Surbhi (17, f, India,) wants to work for “women and the working class because people treat them like animals and not humans.” Frank, a California college student, says his generation will do better than past generations; “We’re connecting multicultural networks of diversity in working together to progress into a more tolerant, knowledgeable and informed society.”
A Romanian youth leader, Maya Saud, tells us youth can bring peace and tolerance:
Young people are eager to make right what has gone wrong with previous generations. Everywhere you look, youth from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds come together in harmony and friendship. They shatter the taboos that older generations have instilled in so many of our minds and form bonds that are truly unbreakable. What is missing, however, is the necessary investment in young people and the political will to make this happen.
… we do not spark wars and conflicts… we do not create contempt between the ‘haves and ‘have nots… we do not increase economic inequality, suffering, and devastation. We are the resource that does the very opposite. Utilize the youth for the sake of our collective future. Allow us to create a global environment where dialogue and mutual understanding are preferred over the destructiveness and terror of conflict.[52]
In the 1960s the slogan was don’t trust anyone over 30, while young people today are not ageist and like the elders they know personally. A TIME magazine cover article about US “Generation Me Me Me” made an interesting connection: “Because Millennials don’t respect authority, they also don’t resent it. That’s why they’re the first teens who aren’t rebelling. They’re nice and not even sullen.” As media star Tavi Gevinson (she’s the popular teen editor of Rookie, an Internet girls’ magazine) said, “There’s not this us-vs-them thing now. Maybe that’s why Millennials don’t rebel” in the US. However, Millennials are less trusting of people in general and of their managers at work–only 32% said people can be trusted and they report being less happy in a survey of over 25,000 young professionals in 22 countries.[53] They grew up in a risky world with financial insecurity, terrorism, and media scrutiny of leaders’ foibles.
Sarah Jameel, also 11, started her youth activism in Sri Lanka to help organize after the tsunami. At age 15 she started a community service project to meet the UN Millennium Goals to end poverty and a year later she initiated the first anti-smoking campaign based on fashion and social media. Jameel listed 17 other global teen activists who are part of We are Family Foundation’s Global Teen Leaders.[54] She countered the argument that Millennials are narcissists, saying her generation is “open-minded, liberal, self-expressive, upbeat, and overtly passionate about equality.” She views their special traits as skill in multi-tasking, being tech-savvy, wanting recognition and instant gratification, and team-players who want transparency and to know their opinions are valued. Based on her activism, she advised teens not to be afraid to question leaders, to be okay with being different, volunteer, work with local politicians to make change happen on the ground, and be humble even if fame follows.
Playfulness is another characteristic of the Millennials. An irreverent humor follows from not being impressed by authority and hierarchy, which also manifests in much swearing in informal speech. US Second Wave and Third Wave feminists conflict over this frequent use of profanity (more in my book Brave). However, the Yippies (Youth International Party) of the 1960s also used guerrilla theater, public pranks, and absurd manifestos about how to put LSD in the water supply or levitate the Pentagon. At the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago they nominated a pig for president. As Chelsea Clinton observed of Millennials, digital natives believe that can and should try to change the world; they’re more likely to take risks than their elders and be egalitarian. “They are also determined to have fun, and I think that makes the work more sustainable for them and more infectious for others.” Clinton added, “Everyone I know is a feminist.”[55]
Some question if youth are any different from 1960s rebels and whether they are in fact creating a new political process. Pew Research Center’s many studies of US generations that do find major differences. Take Pew’s “How Millennial Are You?” quiz to see some differences.[56] I scored low because I don’t have a tattoo or piercing other than my ears, I read newspapers, my parents stayed married, and I’ve recently contacted a politician.
Spanish Professor Raimundo Viojo compared the anti-globalization movement of the 1990s to contemporary uprisings: “Back then our model was to attack the system like a pack of wolves. There was an alpha male, a wolf who led the pack and those who followed behind. Now the model has evolved. Today we are one big swarm of people.” [57] “Hive” is another frequently used word.
One of many generational differences is the more equal role of women in current activism, especially prominent in the Black Lives Matter movement started by queer black women activists. Professor Michael Kimmel told National Public Radio that most of his students have a friend of the opposite sex, in contrast to 25 years ago when only about 10% of his students had such a friend. Radical student groups in the 1960s were infamous for relegating young women to clerical work and the bedroom. When Stokely Carmichael was asked in 1964 about the position of women in SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) he infamously answered “prone.” A few alpha males ran the show, while today leaderlessness is valued. The Free Speech Movement was associated with Mario Savio in Berkeley and Tom Hayden led SDS (Students for a Democratic Society). Now feminist media stars rarely represent organizations like the National Organization for Women, but have popular blogs (Tavi Gevinson) or TV shows (Lena Dunham) that bring fame. An exception is actor Emma Watson, a spokeswoman for UN Women, who is very influential with young people, as stated by many members of her feminist book club on Goodreads. Within a month of launch in 2016 Our Shared Shelf attracted 100,000 members.
Millennials are creating a new paradigm of decision-making. Brazilian environmentalist and politician Marina Silva told a Bioneers Conference in 2012 that youth are creating a new activism Their belief in equality helped elect the first African American president in 2008 and 2012, as well as progressive senators like Elizabeth Warren, and helped pass state legislation legalizing same-sex marriage and marijuana with multi-centered leadership, frequently passed from one person to another. Millennials in the US are not engaging in traditional politics, more interested in direct connection locally, according to a survey of over 1,000 college students called “Government By and For Millennial America.”[58] The students value expansion of participatory democracy by including citizen input into budgeting and public financing of campaigns to reduce the influence of lobbyists on elections. The focus on local organizing is typical of current activism that aims to find cracks in the capitalist system rather than aiming to overthrow the vast economic structure.
When he was 24, David Burstein finished writing Fast Future about Americans born from 1980 to 1994. He spent six years informally interviewing hundreds of his peers in the US. He got started in activism as a producer of the video Generation 18 used to motivate young people to register to vote in 2008. He found that Millennials are pragmatic idealists and activists. Unlike the Boomers, they’re not ideologues, revolutionaries, or anti-authority. He believes, “This generation has an entirely different approach to leadership, marked by openness, collaboration, pragmatism, a healthy distrust of ideology, and idealism.” He told me in a phone interview that their activism is less visible, with fewer public marches. He traces his generation’s patient practicality to realism learned from growing up in an era when rapid change is the only constant, when institutions and authority are collapsing and disaster follows disaster, both environmental and social. Kevin (27, m, California), a college student who critiqued this book, disagrees with Burstein; “What I’ve consistently seen in my generation is that they ARE extreme ideologues, who, being privy to such incredible ICT and thus being better able to understand what is wrong and how they are being duped, are LESS, not more, willing to accept anything less than their idea of a perfect world.”
Adam Smiley Poswolsky, another Millennial author, wrote The Quarter-Life Breakthrough (2014), saying his generation isn’t motivated by money, but rather by the desire to make the world more “compassionate, innovative, and sustainable.” Because of their Internet activity, educated youth know about global problems and care about human poverty and suffering. It takes confidence to stand up to authority so their training in self-esteem by their parents and teachers gives them courage to rebel.
Many of these educated youth believe their generation will do a better job than their passive or materialistic parents in an era when 21,000 children die each day because of lack of food and poverty-caused illnesses.[59] Comparing generations, Rahul (15, f, India) observed, “Our thoughts are totally different; our thoughts are wider and very much advanced. Adults’ thoughts are becoming worse and worse; until we can change their thoughts, the country can’t develop. But, some people think that we’re greedy for money and leaving our families behind to go away for jobs and money” in the world’s largest diaspora at 16 million people, mostly young.[60] (The UN estimates the world’s total of people who live in a country where they weren’t born is 224 million.)
Altruistic
Although Millennials are criticized as entitled and self-centered, Khue (17, f, Vietnam) observes that her generation extends its altruism globally because of the Internet: “I actually see more and more people about my age being so committed to helping others and saving the Earth. This is the difference that the Internet and globalization has brought to my generation. We spread our concerns to other places that might be unrelated to us.” Generational expert Neil Howe observed about Post-Millennials or Gen Z that their Gen X parents emphasize developing “emotional intelligence and being very sensitive to the needs of others.”[61] A 2015 survey of nearly 7,700 Millennials from 29 countries confirmed that they “make doing good part of their lifestyle.”[62]
Michael (16, m) attends a Catholic boys’ school in Ethiopia. He plans to be a cardiologist because his grandmother died of heart disease. In an example of global communication, he quotes African-American comedian Eddie Griffin who he paraphrased in the following:
Some people say Jesus is the messenger and some say it is Mohammed. I say, who gives a concern who the messenger is; did you get the message? The message is not to do onto others what we don’t want them to do on us, and for us to choose our own path, but to never intervene in others. The law of nature supports it, for every action there is a reaction. Thus, I wish to roll over the positive road and see the outcomes.
AIESEC, the largest association of global university students, surveyed 160,292 global youth, 55% female, most ages 16 to 24, which they summarized in a 2016 YouthSpeak report.[63] The large survey backs up my conclusion that youth today are altruistic and that educated young people share similar attitudes globally. A majority of the respondents volunteer (56%), except in Asia (46%) and Western Europe and North America (45%). The highest volunteer rates are in MENA and Latin America (68%). If they were paid to anything, three of the four responses are altruistic: teach, help, build, and travel. Ten percent plan to work for an NGO in ten years (especially for peace and justice causes and that’s the cause they’d most like to work for as a volunteer abroad). However, only 5% predict they will be working for a “social start up” in ten years.
Asked what motivates them most in life, the AIESEC students answered in this order: family, purpose, love, friends, and financial success– spiritual values were in 13th place. Asians put achievement in fifth place, Africans put it in fourth place behind financial success and MENA put it in third place; while Western Europeans and North Americans put purpose in fourth place, and Latin Americans put sense of contribution in fourth place—the most likely to help others. As to their most trusted sources of information, parents and relatives were close behind professors, followed by friends. (Pragmatic, their main reason for going to college is to gain useful knowledge and skills to prepare them for a career.)
Young people are globally minded. When asked what is most important to in the five years after graduation from college, global opportunities was number one followed by opportunities to learn. Some regional differences showed up: Asians most wanted challenging work and Latin Americans and Western Europeans and North Americans wanted constant learning. They’re much most likely to predict they’ll be working for a multi-national corporation in ten years (26%) than a national corporation. In order to grow personally and professionally, they would most like to be part of an exchange in another area followed by the altruistic selection of volunteering in second place (Asia was the exception with study tours in second place and volunteering coming in third). However, over half didn’t know about the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The exception was African where 60% knew about them.
Their most important UN goals are to insure quality education and reduce poverty, typical responses for global youth. Western Europeans and North Americans put protect the planet in second place rather than poverty and Africans put poverty as number one goal as usual Their two top sources of information are global—Facebook and Google. TV and Internet news were in third and fourth place, followed by friends. Africa was different in that TV and Facebook were the top sources of information and in Western Europe and North America Internet news was in second place rather than Google. Only 5% don’t have a smartphone and only 1% don’t have a mobile phone. The regions that most often report they “live on my smartphone” are Western Europe and North America and Central and Eastern Europe, but 20% thinks this practice is harmful.
In the AIESCE survey young people are optimistic as 68% think their society will be better in 15 years. The most optimistic are Africans and Eastern and Central Europeans, perhaps because they have farther to go, and the least hopeful are Western Europeans and North Americans. Their biggest fears about the future of the world are lack of humanity, war, climate change, lack of resources and corruption. Although youth are usually accused of being apolitical, in response to a question about who has the strongest ability to influence society, government is the top response (36%), followed by youth-led organization (21%) and individuals (17%). MENA respondents have most faith in youth organizations (32%), while Latin Americans and Western European and North Americans selected businesses in second place. AIESEC advocates that leadership is the fundamental solution to world problems, encouraging young people to “ drive positive societal change.” Asked about their role-models for leadership, the most popular eight men and two women are in this order: Nelson Mandala, Barack Obama, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Steve Jobs, Malala Yousafzai, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, Pope Francis and Bill Gates. Respondents believe a great leader has passion, responsibility, confidence, determination, courage, vision, empathy, and care.
A survey of more than 25,000 Millennials in 22 countries confirmed that they are altruistic, like to learn, and don’t separate work and life.[64] We can be hopeful about the young generation and our future, according to SpeakOut responses. Although they’re accused of being narcissistic (see my summary of the research[65]), overly confident and materialistic, youth want to be known for doing good. Accused of being co-opted by consumer propaganda that equates happiness with buying things and experiences, my surveys and interviews reveal that to the contrary, many young people are inspired to volunteer and help others. Few regard making a lot of money as a top goal, a finding duplicated in many studies. Their exposure to global media makes them care about global issues, as Gunveen, 13, states in India, “Global media makes us look to the world as a global village wherein all of us know the conditions and the difficult and different ways in which people live.” Also Shreya (13, f, India) gives specific examples: “Due to the help of global media lots of awareness get created like of TB, female infanticide and corruption.”
Youth altruism is the most compelling finding in the quantitative summary of the 12 open-ended SpeakOut questions. When asked about their life purpose, the top responses are altruistic, in this order: do good works and make the world better; worship God (more often mentioned by Muslim youth); help family; followed by a tie between help my country and be happy. Boys are slightly more likely to mention their personal happiness and to not to know their life purpose and girls are more likely to mention personal growth.
Although SpeakOut kids (age 12 and younger) also value doing good as their main purpose, they are less altruistic than teens, more focused on their own well-being. They aim for work success, happiness, and to grow as a person. In contrast, teens didn’t mention their own successes in their top responses except for happiness as a tie for third and fourth place. It’s no surprise that as children get older they are able to think more abstractly about religious concepts and the well-being of others.
SpeakOut students from developed nations rarely mentioned helping their country, unlike students from developing and emerging countries. Few from developed countries mentioned helping their parents, perhaps because they don’t think they will need help, as elders are better off economically than youth in developed countries. More of the youth from developed countries didn’t know their purpose and mentioned their own happiness as a goal. Youth from emerging nations were more likely to mention their career success but youth from all three types of countries put good works as their main purpose.
In regards to SpeakOut students’ career choices, three out of four of the most popular jobs are altruistic, in this order: medical, business, teaching, social work and other helping professions. These were the most popular choices for girls with business in fourth place, while business is on the top of the list for boys who were more likely to mention technical and blue-collar jobs like engineering or being a soldier or an athlete. Girls are more interested in careers in the humanities, such as being a writer, artist, or entertainer. Of the 600 teens surveyed for a 2013 HealthFocus International study, 60% believe that it’s up to their generation to save the planet. As a SpeakOut girl said, “I would change the system that is running Bangladesh. I would give more priority to the new and the youth of today so that they are actively involved in changing the country. They are today’s change makers and it is WITH them I would like to change my country” (Tamanna, 17, f, Bangladesh). Because of their altruistic impulses and communication skills, as well as their large numbers, youth need to be included in policy decisions and trained to be a force for good.
When MTV asked over 1,000 13 and 14-year-olds in the US what they would name Generation Z, they picked the Founder Generation.[66] The endnote includes a video of a panel of teens discussing the topic. Runner-up terms were in the same vein: bridge, builder, regenerator, and navigator generation. The teens said that while Millennials were disruptive “of the existing framework of race, gender and sexuality equality” 90% of the Founders want to “build a better world” and 91% are optimistic they can achieve this goal. Diversity will be valued in the new world as they’ve learned from the Internet to understand and care about people from different backgrounds and since 2011 a majority of the Founders have been people of color. They said their generation doesn’t feel “pressure to stick to a mold of who they should be” (79%). MTV researcher Jane Gould reported they have “a stunningly intuitive sense of the changing times they’ve been born into and the huge opportunity to make new history.”
High school student Bernabe Carmacho wrote on Medium.com that stereotypes that adolescents are lazy, dumb, selfish, apathetic and disengaged from politics aren’t true and serve as an excuse not to make progressive change and to continue to suppress young people.[67] Carmacho pointed out that teens volunteer in organizations for social justice, the environment, and technological innovation and use social media to spread awareness about civil rights for immigrants, children, women and LGBT people. He mentioned the revival of the 1960s group Students for a Democratic Society in 2006 when two high school students contacted a Baby Boomer member and formed chapters at high schools and colleges.[68] The 2015 Millennial Impact Report surveyed over 1,500 young employees (born from 1980 to 2000), reporting that only 30% didn’t volunteer and 31% volunteered over 10 hours a week.[69] Team-oriented, 65% were more likely to volunteer if their coworkers participated.
University of California Professor and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich said in 2015 that in his 40 years of teaching he’s never seen as galvanized a group of students, concerned about public service although cynical about politics. I heard many scornful remarks from SpeakOut students in various countries that they don’t respect do-nothing rich celebrities like Paris Hilton. Polls by The Harvard Institute of Politics found youth voting surged, many are volunteers, and “they want to make the world a better place.”[70] Harvard focus groups indicated, “They want to do more than just vote. They want to be part of a campaign. Sanders was the first one since Obama to tap into that.” Harvard pollster John Della Volpe reported, “Conversation is how you build a relationship with these young people. You empower them, ask them to volunteer, then you can ask them to vote.”
Young people have altruistic aspirations, as these two English young people with different immigrant parents (from Sri Lanka and India) told me: “I know I will do something great one day, something to help humanity, at least I hope so” (Kalwane, 20, m). Rhea (11, f) says, “I think my purpose is to be worthy and prove to be different than some of the people before us, such as writing a book or making an inspirational speech or movement and generally being a person that people of all ages know the name of and look up to.” Her desire to be famous for her contributions is typical of her generation that grew up in a celebrity culture that reports endlessly on famous stars, but they want to be famous for doing good.
Their altruism shapes their career goals. US pollster John Zogby reported 85% of Gen Y (he calls them First Globals) want work that makes a difference and 71% want to work for an employer that supports social responsibility, much higher percentages than other age groups.[71] The Global Shapers survey of over 1,000 members in 2015 garnered responses from 125 countries, with the most from Latin America and the least from China. Their mean age was 28 and 60% of the respondents were male. When asked what are the most important things they look for in a job, they altruistically said the opportunity to make a difference (65%), opportunities to learn (51%), with career advancement (40%) in third place.[72] Surveys and interviews with over 25,000 Millennials from 22 countries published in What Millennials Want From Work (2016) by Deal and Levenson indicated that most (97%) believe it’s important to work for an employer that shares their values and only 29% they report that their pay rate is important, partly because of concerns about debt (especially in Singapore, the US, UK, Russia and Italy). They want work to be interesting and altruistic. Most (92%) say that making the world a better place is at least somewhat important to them and 88% value involvement in community work.[73] A majority believes their employer is a good community citizen. Millennials from the 22 countries want to learn about the global situation so they can help, more focused on international issues than older generations. Many expressed they would like to travel to and work in another country.
Deal and Levenson explained that Millennials are viewed as entitled because they believe they should be able to voice their needs and suggestions even as entry-level employees who want to improve their team performance and they want work-life balance. However, they feel employers often contact them after work, one-third work more than 10 hours a day, and almost one- third observe they would be viewed as less dedicated if they take advantage of a work-life program. The Millennials aren’t different from older generations surveyed in thinking they deserve the best, but they are less happy and more irritable, and less trusting of people.[74] Only 39% predict their quality of life will be higher than their parents’ live; the most optimistic young workers live in Russia, South Africa, Singapore and Mexico.[75]
Kevin (18, m, Trinidad) is an example of a thoughtful and caring teen. He is taking a gap year trying to find an affordable university abroad because the local college is poor quality (our discussion is on YouTube.[76]) He’s an independent thinker because he got practice standing up to authority being an agnostic in a Catholic secondary school. He lives in a third world country, he says, with development lagging due to not emphasizing infrastructure, health care and education in development plans. He thinks that the governments of Barbados and the Cayman Islands do better with less poverty. Kevin was able to observe what policies work and what does not through his various travels by the age of 17. He attended the Global Young Leaders Conference in Austria, Czech Republic and Hungary in 2012 where he represented his nation discussing key issues such as water conservation, social development and diversification of key industries. He traveled across England and France for several weeks to further his multicultural skills.
Kevin believes it’s not wrong to have ambition and want to be successful as long as it’s accompanied by other goals. If money is your aim, so be it, but have another goal to actively make things better. You’re not a monster because you want to be wealthy, but that alone is not going to take you through life. Success is a multi-faceted achievement. He’s done community work for the past five years. His Catholic high school had a mandate that students should get involved by their junior year, not just because a blank would look bad on university applications, but because of the lesson of giving without receiving anything in return. Encouraged by his mother, he’s worked with the mentally challenged youth, animals, and on environmental conservation. Kevin said the biggest take-away is the enhanced perspective that occurs when placing your feet in someone else’s shoes, something that you can’t simply get from the news. Through his various volunteer positions he realized physical interaction and human touch makes a world of difference. So while it can be helpful to sign an online petition, it’s more important to use your own two hands to bring about results. Simply “liking” or “sharing” a story on social media does not instantaneously result in physical improvement of an individual’s life, whereas face-to-face communication can make a big difference.
Kevin thinks the world has probably never been worse off in terms of the ratio between how much we are aware of environmental issues and how little remedial action we take. Further he thinks that despite the continued widespread notion that people’s actions don’t have consequences on the environment, hope remains because, “If you don’t remain hopeful, you’re screwed.” He thinks that over several generations there will be a chance, albeit a small one, that we will be able to clear up global problems if we learn from past mistakes. He points to positive models, such as Scandinavian economic equality, US free speech, and London’s blend of different races and nationalities cohabiting.
Educated Middle-Class Changemakers
The uprisings are motivated by middle-class youth’s dissatisfaction with their employment opportunities and the rising cost of living, along with dissatisfaction with corrupt governments. When prices rise, riots often occur. A study of social protests from 2006 to 2013 reported that the majority of protests occurred in high-income countries with a coalition of youth, older people, and the middle-class, unlike previous protests led by unions and working-class activists.[77] Most young protesters are middle class and well-educated, according to Australian youth studies researcher Andy Furlong.[78] Globally, 31% of females and 28% of males are enrolled in higher education,[79] (while about 8% of boys and 13% of girls are illiterate.[80] Illiteracy is highest in poor developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia.) Middle-class young people, called the urban precariat or netizens, are the ones who most often have the opportunity to get an education and access the Internet, either at home or in Internet cafes. The coping techniques of low-income youth who live in urban slums are explored in Lost Youth in the Global City (2014).[81]
It’s important to emphasize that 87% of youth live in developing countries. To begin to correct the “data gap” about global youth caused by too “narrow a line of inquiry,” three organizations sponsored a 2014 report on The Global Youth Wellbeing Index in 2014. Researchers drew from data representing almost 70% of global youth that revealed a large majority of youth aged 10 to 24 experience low levels of wellbeing. They reported that current data on youth is “often incomplete, inconsistent, and uncoordinated across sectors, institutions, countries, and regions.”[82] The report acknowledges some data is compiled by the World Bank, WHO, UNESCO, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, etc., but there’s a “lack of sufficient age-disaggregated data or coverage.” Sample sizes are often small and narrow, only asking about a topic like consumer behavior or political opinion. The report recommends deeper-dive case studies to add to knowledge about youth development from a systems’ viewpoint.
Estimates are that by 2025 the numbers of people with a daily income of $10 per day or more will grow by two billion, with 70% of the growth coming from the global South.[83] The emerging middle class will look for the least expensive purchase rather than brands and quality that influence more “mature” markets in the North. China is well situated to supply the demand for cheap consumer goods, such as manufacturing the motorcycles used by youth in Cameroon to be taxi drivers or couriers.
Youth activists are generally older teenagers and in their early 20s who tend to mobilize at their schools or universities, as occurred in Iran after the overthrow of the Shah, Apartheid South Africa’s Student’s Movement, in Quebec’s Maple Spring and in Chile since the Penguin Revolution of 2006. Although scholars of international relations often view children and youth as apolitical due to their low voter turnout, and lack of interest in established political parties,[84] young people are often in the vanguard of political campaigns such as Latin American uprisings against dictators in the 1930s through the 1950s, US Civil Rights and anti-war movements from the 1950s to mid-1960s, and Mexican student uprisings in 1968.
Milja Jovanovic, the only woman in the inner circle of Otpor, the rebel group that ousted their Serbian dictator in 2000, reported, “We were middle class, we had enough money to sustain ourselves, or our families supported us. We didn’t need to go out to work to buy food or pay for electricity. I think that was really important because otherwise we couldn’t have committed to Otpor 24 hours a day like we did.”[85] This educated class of young activists includes Muslim jihadists who come from the new middle class or wealthy families like Osama Bin Laden’s and the English-speaking Saudi terrorists who attacked the World Trade Towers in 2011.[86] They feel humiliation and loss of dignity due to Western incursions such as fighting wars and funding Israel in the Middle East, and are able to utilize ICT to recruit other jihadists.
The 2017 Deloitte Millennial Survey of almost 8,000 full-time employees in mostly large companies, likely well-educated, from 30 developed and emerging countries asked about their top concerns.[87] Overall, the top issue is political conflict and tension (56%), while in emerging markets they are more likely to worry about crime/corruption (58%) and hunger, health, and inequality (50%). Overall, the second concern is about terrorism (29%), followed by unemployment at 25%. They realize that automation will bring major changes to their workplaces and a majority (51%) think they will need retraining. All these concerns revolve around feeling insecure. They have most hope about making change locally in advocacy groups and local companies; 88% say business has a positive impact on the world around it, with the highest agreement in emerging markets. Most (65%) rejected the “new agenda” of divisive radical political leaders in favor of gradual change and “straight-talking.”
The majority of middle-class youth live in urban areas where traditions are shaken up by the confluence of new ways of living. Many of the uprisings took place in urban squares and parks, part of the “right to the city” movement. Henry Lefebvre coined the term in his 1968 book of the same name, Le Droit à la Ville. Marxist geographer David Harvey says the concept refers not only to accessing urban resources but the collective right to change the “processes of urbanization.” Reformers look to digital technology to bring more citizen participation in “smart cities.” The mayor of Calgary in Alberta, Naheed Nenshi (born in 1972) includes technology to create a “culture of constant citizen-focused improvement,” drawing ideas from the Global Agenda Council on the Future of Cities report on the Top 10 Emerging Urban Innovations.[88]
Middle-class kids around the world grew up in small families being taught to have self-esteem, and to view themselves as special. In a survey of global 20-year-olds by the International Youth Foundation, one of the top concerns was not being heard. “The leaders don’t listen to us,” wrote Mainuddin in Delhi, India. Pooja, also in Delhi, said, “I wish my parents would try to understand and listen to me better.”[89] SpeakOut respondents I interviewed made similar comments. The current generation of young people is uniquely situated to be effective changemakers. The largest and best educated generation is able to share support and information globally because of easy access to the Internet for educated youth. The current wave of youth-led uprisings started in the Middle East, the focus of the next chapter.
Chapter 1 Discussion Questions
1. Define globalization. Make a pie chart showing how much of what influences your beliefs and lifestyle identity is influenced by local, national or global influences. You could include religion, music, style, media including the Internet, advertisements, ethnicity, class, race, gender, age, urban or rural, region and sexual preference. If an anthropologist looked at you without hearing you speak, could she tell where you live? Do you agree or disagree with Yara’s attitudes about a connected global youth generation? What is meant by hybrid culture and modernity?
2. Do you think a New Woman and Man can be created as youth establish direct horizontal democracies? Do you see evidence of a “new global dynamic emerging” or not? Look at themes in online images of the “global Imaginary” which the curator says are one of the most powerful agents of social change.[90]
3. Do you observe that young people you know are more likely to be Generation Me or We? (More about this topic in Ageism in Youth Studies.) Or do you think there aren’t significant generational differences?
4. Youth today are described as brave and their parents as asleep. Do you think generational differences are unique because of historical circumstances, or do you think development stages to adulthood is a more accurate way of describing Generation Y and Z? What commonalities and what differences do you see in youth activists?
Activities
- Since Millennials are accused by Professor Jean Twenge of being more narcissistic than previous generations (not born out by other studies) take the NPI narcissism test.[91]
- Also take Pew “How Millennial are You?” Inventory[92]
Films
1. See Mongolian films about rural beliefs and lifestyle.
Mongolian Ping Pong. Boys find a ping-pong ball in a creek and think it has magical special powers. 2005
The Cave of the Yellow Dog. A girl finds a puppy but her father won’t let her keep it. 2005
The Story of the Weeping Camel. A family of nomadic shepherds raises a white camel calf. 2004
- Watch In America: an Irish immigrant family comes to live in a tenement in New York City, told from the point of view of the little girls. Compare with life in a slum in a developing nation. 2003
- Read India in a Time of Globalization: A Photo Essay by Indian Youth, edited by Barbara Cervone, Next Generation Press, 2008. Bangalore and Delhi high school students took thousands of photos and did 50 interviews to explore how India is changing.
4. See the Norwegian hit web and TV series, Skam, about teens in Oslo. They cope with anxiety, coming out, sex, school, drinking, religion, etc.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB9FJhSsHYs
[2] A survey of American youth also found that they feel more in common with members of their generation in other countries than with older Americans. Eric Greenberg. Generation We. Pachatusan, 2008.
[3] Rob Salkowitz. Young World Rising: How Youth Technology and Entrepreneurship are Changing the World from the Bottom Up. Wilely, 2010. Salkowitz describes case studies of young entrepreneurs, including developing nations.
[4] www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHNi2F-qBZMThe
http://www.payableondeath.com/murderedlove/pod/
[5] Wells, p. 157.
[6] ALcinda Honwana. Youth and Revolution in Tunisia. Zed Books, 2013.
[7] Paul Mason. Why It’s Still Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions. Verso, 2013, p. 66.
[8] David Burstein. Fast Future: How the Millennial Generation is Shaping Our World. Beacon Press, 2013, p. xviii.
[9] “The Next Normal,” Viacom Media Networks, 2012. This market study claims to be the “broadest single study of Millennials to date” and the first “truly global portrait.” Analyzed 15,000 youth ages 9 to 30 in 24 countries.
http://www.viacom.com/news/Pages/newstext.aspx?RID=721468
[10] Christina Fominaya and Laurence Cox, eds. European Social Movements. Routledge, 2013.
[11] Jean Case, “The Business of Doing Good,” Forbes Leadership, June 18, 2014.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeancase/2014/06/18/millennials2014/
[12] “How World Leaders Brought Youth to the 71st UN General Assembly,” un.org, office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, October 2016.
http://www.un.org/youthenvoy/2016/10/world-leaders-brought-youth-71st-un-general-assembly/
[13] “The Next Normal,” Viacom Media Networks, 2012. Surveyed 15,000 young people ages 9 to 30 in 24 countries.
http://www.viacom.com/news/Pages/newstext.aspx?RID=721468
[14] Ryan McCready, “Millennials Don’t Suck, You’re Just Old and Hate Change,” Venngage, May 17, 2016.
[15] “Just 8 Men Own Same Wealth as Half the World,” Oxfam, January 16, 2017.
[16] http://www.gallup.com/services/189926/student-poll-2015-results.aspx
[17] http://www.actionaid.org/activista/who-we-are
[18] http://www.restlessdevelopment.org/globalstrategy
The organization has offices in India, Nepal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, UK, US, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
[20] Parag Khanna. How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance. Random House, 2011.
[21] http://time.com/3506707/peace-love-music-and-mud-life-at-woodstock/
[22] Jack Goldstone, “Youth Bulges and the Social Conditions of Rebellion,” World Politics Review, November 20, 2012.
[23] Paul Mason. Why It’s Still Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions. Verso, 2013, p. 152.
[24] Marina Sitrin, ed. Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina. AK Press, 2006.
[25] Adam Hanft, “The Stunning Evolution of Millennials: They’ve Become the Ben Franklin Generation,” Huffington Post, August 11, 2015.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-hanft/the-stunning-evolution-of_b_6108412.html
[26] Dominique Reynié, ed., “World Youths,” Fondation Pour L’Innovation Politique,” 2011.
[27] Nayan Chandra, Akira Iriye, Bruce Mazlish and Saskia Sassen, eds. New Global Studies. www.degruyter.com/view/j/ngs
[28] Terence Edward Paupp, The Future of Global Relations, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2009. He concluded that regional organizing will shape the future, as US power declines:
Regional economic organizations (such as ASEAN), regional security organizations (such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization), hybrid regional formations (such as the European Union), and regional powers such as China, India, and Brazil have all challenged Washington’s preeminence alliance against the U.S. Global Empire.
http://www.fpif.org/articles/review_the_future_of_global_relations
[29] Dominique Reynié, ed., “World Youths,” Fondation Pour L’Innovation Politique,” 2011. Electronic survey in 2010 by TNS Opinion of 25,000 youth born between 1981 and 1994 in 25 countries, plus 7,714 respondents aged 30 to 50
[30] the-visual-archive-project-of-the-global-imaginary.com/visual-global-imaginary/
[31] Craig Jeffrey. Timepass: Youth, Class and the Politics of Waiting in India. Stanford University Press, 2010, pp. 174-175.
[32] Speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, Montreal, May 2010.
Author of Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power (2012).
[33] Global Trends 2030, Center for the Study of Intelligence, 2012.
http://www.dni.gov/index.php/about/organization/national-intelligence-council-global-trends
[34] Janna Anderson and Lee Ranie, “Millennials will Benefit and Supper Due to their Hyperconnected Lives,” Pew Research Center, February 29, 2012.
[35] “The Web and Rising Global Inequality,” Web Index, December 2014.
http://thewebindex.org/report/#1._executive_summary:_the_web_and_growing_global_inequality
[36] Bruce Drake, “6 New Findings About Millennials,” Pew Research Center, March 7, 2014.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/03/07/6-new-findings-about-millennials/
[37] “Generation Gaps,” Pew Research Center, September 2, 2015.
http://www.people-press.org/2015/09/03/most-millennials-resist-the-millennial-label/9-2-2015_02/
[38] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gElZoNG7ph0
[39] Mary Bucholtz and Elena Skapoulli, “Youth Language at the Intersection: From Migration to Globalization,” Pragmatics, Vol. 19, No. 1, 2009, pp. 1-4.
[40] Mary Bucholtz and Elena Skapoulli, pp. 1-16.
[41] Rob White, “Climate Change, Uncertain Futures and the Sociology of Youth. Youth Studies Australia. Vol. 30, No. 3, 2011.
[42] https://www.facebook.com/160382763986923/photos/a.297709890254209.81594.160382763986923/297906770234521/?type=3&theater
[43] http://www.nytimes.com/video/fashion/100000002722846/paris-fashion-16th-arrondissement.html?playlistId=100000001775830
[44] Ulrich Beck and Elizabeth Beck-Gernsheim, “Global Generations and the Trap of Methodological Nationalism For a Cosmopolitan Turn in the Sociology of Youth and Generation,” European Sociological Review, Vol. 25, No 1, 2009, pp. 25-36.
[46] “Youth Migration: Facts and Figures,” Global Migration Group, 2014.
Click to access 4._Chapter_1.pdf
[47] #YouthStats: Globalization and Migration,” Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth”
http://www.un.org/youthenvoy/globalization-migration/
[48] Pierpaolo Mudu and Sutapa Chattopadhyay, eds. Migrations, Squatting and Radical Autonomy. Routledge, 2016.
[49] Leah Garchik, “Ronan Farrow Making Mark as Diplomat at Young Age,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 16, 2012.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/16/DD6N1OHRE6.DTL
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/empowering_youth_change_agents
[50] Diego Cupolo, “Sofia Protesters Reorganize,” Occupy.com, August 15, 2013.
[51] http://www.weforum.org/videos/future-across-generations-annual-meeting-2012
[52] Maya Saoud, a member of the UN advocacy team of Pax Romana and a student at Fordham University, August, 2010.
[53] Jennifer J. Deal and Alec Levenson. What Millennials Want from Work: How to Maximize Engagement in Today’s Workforce, McGraw-Hill Education, 2016, p. 63.
[54] Sarah Jameel, “Being an Inconvenient Youth,” Medium.com, May 8, 2014.
[55] Lynn Sherr, “Chelsea Clinton Leans In,” Parade Magazine, April 6, 2013.
http://www.parade.com/2340/lynnsherr/chelsea-clinton-leans-in/
[56] http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/how-millennial-are-you/
[57] Tito Drago, “Spain: ‘Indignant’ Demonstrators Marching to Brussels,” Global Issues, July 30, 2011.
http://www.globalissues.org/news/2011/07/30/10689
[58] http://www.scribd.com/doc/124297537/Government-by-and-for-Millennial-America
[59] “Today, Around 21,000 Children Died Around the World,” Global Issues, September 24, 2011.
http://www.globalissues.org/article/715/today-21000-children-died-around-the-world
[60] Somini Senguptal, “Indian Diaspora is World’s Largest at 16m: UN,” The Times of India, January 14, 2016.
[61] Conor Dougherity, “App Makers Reach Out to the Teenager on Mobile,” New York Times, January 1, 2016.
[62] “The Deloitte Millennial Survey 2016”
[63] http://youthspeak.aiesec.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/YouthSpeak-Preliminary-Findings-final.pdf
[64] Jennifer J. Deal and Alec Levenson. What Millennials Want from Work: How to Maximize Engagement in Today’s Workforce, McGraw-Hill Education, 2016.
[66] “Meet the Founders,” @MTVinsights,
Diana Bradley, “The New Influencers,” PR Week, February 2016.
http://www.prweek.com/article/1379310/new-influencers
[67] Bernabe Camacho, “What is Stopping the Youth?” Medium.com, August 30, 2015.
[68] http://www.newsds.org/p/test-page.html
[69] “The Millennial Impact Report 2015”
http://www.themillennialimpact.com/research/
[70] “Young Voters, Motivated Again,” Editorial Board New York Times, February 21, 2016.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/22/opinion/young-voters-motivated-again.htm
[71] John Zogby, “Understanding Millennials, the Future of America,” Tulsa World, September 8, 2014.
[72] http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Media/GSC/GSC_AnnualSurvey15.pdf
[73] Deal and Levenson, p. 31, p. 74
[74] Deal and Levenson, p. 56
[75] Deal and Levenson, p. 87
[76] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CznSTb4ed94
[77] Isabel Ortiz, et al., “World Protests 2006-2013,” Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, September 2013.
Click to access World_Protests_2006-2013-Executive_Summary.pdf
[78] Andy Furlong. Youth Studies. Routledge, 2012, p. 222.
[79] http://www.prb.org/pdf13/youth-data-sheet-2013.pdf
Population Reference Bureau, “The World’s Youth 2013 Data Steet.”
[80] Adult and Youth Literacy, UNESCO, 2013. http://www.uis.unesco.org/literacy/Documents/fs26-2013-literacy-en.pdf
[81] Jo-Anne Dillabough and Jacqueline Kennelly. Lost Youth in the Global City. Russell House Publishing, 2014.
[82] Ibid., p. 10.
[83] Nick Jepson, “The End of the Long Twentieth Century? The Rise of China and the Possibilities of a New Global Fordism,” Global-E: A Global Studies Journal, July 7, 2014.
http://global-ejournal.org/2014/07/11/vol8iss5/
[84] Helen Brocklehurst. Who’s Afraid of Children?: Children, Conflict and International Relations. Ashgate Publishing, 2006.
[85] Mathew Collin, The Time of the Rebels: Youth Resistance Movements and 21st Century Revolutions. Profile Books, 2007, p. 15.
[86] Charles B. Strozier, et al, eds. The Fundamentalist Mindset: Psychological Perspectives on Religion, Violence and History. Oxford University Press, 2010. p. 141.
[87] “The 2017 Deloitte Millennial Survey”
[88] World Economic Forum Global Agenda, “Top Ten Urban Innovations,” 2015.
Click to access Top_10_Emerging_Urban_Innovations_report_2010_20.10.pdf
[89] YOUth Magazine, International Youth Foundation, Issue 3, Spring, 2019, p. 23.
[90] the-visual-archive-project-of-the-global-imaginary.com/visual-global-imaginary/
[91] http://personality-testing.info/tests/NPI.php
[92] http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/how-millennial-are-you/
Earth Haven 