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Eduardo Missoni - Professor, Management of International Institutions
and Non Profit Organizations Bocconi University, Milano (Italy)
 Times of globalization
The present phase of globalization is one of unprecedented acceleration with drastic changes in the temporal, spatial and cognitive dimensions of life. Speed and frequency of exchanges, the growing transnational integration of world economy and market mediated push toward cultural homogenization, are but a few examples. Increased political and economic liberalization has provided some with greater freedom of choice but, at the same time, a higher degree of uncertainty challenges humanity, challenged by competition for energy and water, demographic changes and flows, climate change and conflicts.
Globalization has created tremendous potential for economic and social development, particularly in Asia, but it has contributed to heightened inequality and insecurity as well. Globalized western cultural and socio-economical development models have imposed themselves to former norms and values.
Competitiveness, self-interest, search for endless growth and consumption and for “having” more and more, have wildly overcome principles of cooperation and solidarity, of care for the community and respect for Nature, as well as the quest for what “to be” deeply rooted in some traditional societies. Current financial crisis is not but the tip of the iceberg of a deeper illness rooted in a society where growth of economic production (GNP) has been smuggled as a measure of “progress”, and for the sake of growth new needs have been artificially induced to support consumption without limits, thus waste regardless of the consequences on health, the environment and the life conditions of future generations.
Worldwide, some 1.8 billion individuals between the age of 10 and 24, representing 30 per cent of the global population,i represent an important target of aggressive marketing strategies aimed at creating artificial needs, thus unneeded and often dangerous, and often catastrophic consumerism. Think to the consequences of the push for consumption of unhealthy foods and drinks, excessively rich in sugars and fats, not to speak of the drive for alcoholic drinks and tobacco, just to stay in the area of “legal” consumption.
Young people face narrowing difficulties entering and staying in the labour market; many cannot find jobs in the formal sector and may languish in the informal economy; employers often discriminate against youth, especially young women. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, young people’s social exclusion has increased, the youth unemployment rate is more than double the overall unemployment rate.
A society where your social status depends on the ability to “show off”, easily drives young people to seek wealth -or just its status symbols- by any means, even pushing some of them into criminality attracted by the possibility of “easy money”. Others, incapable or not willing to take action for change, express their dissent choosing to live at the margins of society, being finally rejected by society itself for being “different” and not homologated to dominant market-based values and models, eventually falling into depression or committing suicide, which now ranks among the major causes of death among young people. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, many youth are experiencing vulnerability, poverty and social exclusion that has encouraged risky behaviors, including substance abuse and unsafe sexual practices. This in turn has helped, among others, to fuel the spread of HIV/AIDS. Numbers of new infections have increased twenty-fold in less than a decade, and 75 per cent of reported infections were in people younger than 30 years.
Lack of employment opportunities has contributed to poverty, the main push factor for widespread migration in several regions. In addition the dream for a different life plays a significant role as a pull factor. The western well-of way of life is sublimated by European satellite TV programs that young people see everyday. With the promise of easy success many young people are trapped in criminal circuits, illegal trafficking and prostitution. In destiny countries the social inclusion of migrants remains a challenge, especially for undocumented migrants. Socially marginalized migrant youth are at risk of exploitation and might become involved in antisocial behavior.
It is in the nature of young people to look for ideals Youth is a period of transition between childhood and adulthood, where young people “take on new roles and responsibilities and make decisions that ultimately influence the course of their lives”. All together, today's young people are the best educated youth generation in history and they represent a tremendous resource for the development and advancement of society. However “negative perceptions of youth, the failure to help them develop to their full potential, the inability to recognize that investing in youth benefits national development, and the consequent unwillingness and incapacity of society to fully involve young people in a meaningful way have effectively deprived the world of a resource of inestimable value.”
In all countries, young people should be the promise for a better future. They should have a real voice in their communities. This is a basic condition to change the world and create a more fair and caring society. More and more adults should become young people’s allies and help them participate in decision-making processes that shape their lives, and have access to responsibilities and jobs. Help them to avoid falling into the cracks of today's
society, rather building with them a new one, based on values worthwhile living. Recalling Martin Luther King's words: “If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live”iv helps to understand that values are the compass which guide social change and human progress. But for the change to be sustainable, there is a need for intergenerational cooperation and young people must be the main subject in the strategy for change. Education to human values and social commitment, together with equipping young people with coherent, appropriate life skills and social capabilities, will allow them to become agents of change.
Education for All
In fact, education is not only about acquiring technical skills (starting from literacy and numeracy), but also about the development of mind-openness, of relational skills (such as the capability to openly relate with others, to manage conflicts, to solve problems, to make responsible decisions, etc.), of the capacity to understand and critically interpret events and consciously interact with the wider environment. Education, from the Latin “e-ducere”, lead out, should facilitate the emergence of talents.
In order to ensure global youth development, the UN propose seven priority areas for youth policies : health maintenance, education, leisure and volunteer activities, poverty reduction, employment, and the protection of the rights of girls and young women. The above mentioned policies are obviously interrelated, but education understood in its wider and comprehensive meaning plays a fundamental cross-cutting role. Education for all (EFA) is among the Millennium Development Goals adopted at world level in the year 2000, and to be attained by 2015. Unfortunately EFA is mostly understood in terms of formal education and measured mainly by quantitative parameters of access and attendance.
In this perspective, significant progress has been made in the formal education sector but inequalities remain. Access to education, for example, has expanded in many parts of Asia, but the gains are most noticeable at the primary level. Many countries in the area, particularly those in South Asia, still have a long way to go to achieve gender parity in education. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, education has also been affected by the demise of State socialism. Before the transition, primary and secondary school enrollment was very high. During the transition, both primary and secondary school enrollment decreased in some countries of the region. By contrast, higher education enrollment has continuously increased in most transition economies, slowly at the beginning of the transition and at a more rapid pace in recent years. In developed market economies, while enrollment and completion rates are high at all levels of education, differences in educational performance seem to reflect the socio-economic and ethnic background of youth.
Values need to be nurtured in the daily experience
If we are seriously interested in a better world for all, a fundamental shift must take place in the domain of both formal and non-formal education, and both in terms of values and methodological approach.
Education must serve society as an instrument for fostering the creation of good citizens. All approaches to redesign the educational processes must take into account the basic and agreed-upon values and concerns of the international community, such as human rights, tolerance, understanding, democracy, responsibility, universality, cultural identity, the search for peace, preservation of the environment, and sharing of knowledge.
In the words of Albert Einstein “the problem of today will not be solved by the same thinking that produced the problem in the first place”. Thus, not only “what” is taught, must be reviewed, but also “how” it is taught.
For example, in modern western society education has been promoting competition among students, and this competitive spirit has been translated into society. Individual success has been praised and brought as an example to follow, rather than the capacity of members of a group to cooperate and achieving success collectively. In today's society for each individual success story, hundreds of fellow young women and men, shift directly from education into unemployment, or into highly insecure jobs and social exclusion.
On the contrary, in some traditional societies, as for example in the ancient Indian educational system the students where not to lead a self-centered life. They were constantly reminded of their obligations to society. The system was focussed on building a valuesbased culture. Based on that millenary culture, modern Indian authors, re-propose an holistic educational framework, recognizing interconnectedness at all levels of existence as a basis of human values, and conclude that “true education must lay a secure foundation for trust, cooperation, teamwork, altruism and similar indispensable lubricants of societal life”. Some hundred years ago, a great educator, the founder of the Scout Movement, Robert Baden-Powell, wrote: “Cooperation is the only way if we mean to win success”. Cooperation is indeed the multiplier factor that we need in education, as well in society, if we want to effectively face todays local and global challenges. Through cooperation egocentrism is won; looking for common objectives, interdependence is discovered affirming the importance of every single individual for the success of the group. Experience shows that to orient people lives, values need to be nurtured in the daily experience. School plays in this sense a fundamental role, as it is in school that young people spend the most of their daily time. In a values based perspective, the teacher develops together with the pupil in search of culture, conscious that “the boy is the art piece that the teacher must let blossom, letting emerge the future which is in him” letting vibrate the right cords that motivate him to action. “High ideals” are right cords. School works when the teacher, with his example and not only in words shows he lives for high objectives. The problem is not how to teach, but “how one should be in order to teach”. However The reflexion on school systems and their educational impact goes beyond the purpose of this analysis. Here we are rather interested in exploring complementary opportunities in the area of non-formal education.
Values-based Non formal education
By UNESCO's definition, non-formal education refers to “any organised educational activity outside the established formal system - whether operating separately or as an important feature of some broader activity - that is intended to serve identifiable learning clienteles and learning objectives.” The definition however includes experiences that, like in most cases of formal education, reproduce the societal structure and mechanisms underlying the illness of today's society.
In the values-based perspective, we focus on non-formal education that adopts approaches that are promotive of an inclusive society where every human being will be granted full capability of choice, according to Amartya Sen's concept of “development as freedom”. An education which is “liberating”; thus, not transferral of information, but support to the creative discovery of the world. A human-centered approach that values the importance of interpersonal channels of communication in decision-making processes starting at the community level. In line with Paulo Freire's “education as the practice of freedom”. Many of the life skills needed to grow active and responsible citizens cannot be 'taught' they need to be learned through experience, in the “class-room of life”, rather that in lecture amphitheaters.
Universal values and human rights need to be translated into practice, through learning by doing, peer education, gender equality, intercultural learning, self-education, youth empowerment, service and social engagement.
Unlike other non-formal education settings, true values-based non-formal education should not only offer the right 'hands-on' experience, but a lifelong educational project, eventually based -as in the case of the Scout Movement- on a solid pedagogical method and an equally life-long commitment (the Scout Promise and Law).
Like in other non-formal educational contexts, adolescents and young adults collaborate with their peers in small groups and develop shared projects, acquiring the needed team spirit and life skills that motivate and allow them to engage in challenging projects. However it is the ideal of a better world, the lifelong true commitment to high values, that young people see reflected in the educator's living example and emulate, that will make the difference.
The local dimension of citizenship
Citizenship is not only defined in legal terms, it is also a feeling of belonging and an active involvement into community life. The basis of citizenship is participation; organizations, especially youth organizations (including if they include older members in their ranks), should ensure effective participation of their young members to decision-making processes. It is very important that youth engage in community and development activities; these represent forms of expression and civic involvement that address their concerns and interests directly. Thus, young people should be stimulated to work on activities and projects with a direct link to the local reality. The process should necessarily start with critically exploring local culture, social structures, economical and political conditions, conditioning factors, both internal and external to the community, then giving space to creativity and local experimentation of new social and economic models.
Among the latter, social entrepreneurship, may play an important role in promoting social change based on solidarity. Especially in the context of most disadvantaged communities one of the difficulties faced with the development of entrepreneurial talent is that of preserving its value within communities once skills and success have been achieved. Social enterprises, which are cooperative and community-based are important means of promoting decent jobs for young people and can provide an opportunity to learn how to become an entrepreneur and collectively accumulate the financial, social and human resources necessary to create employment. Social entrepreneurs create businesses that contribute to change, not only for the individuals concerned, but also for the community at large. Like traditional entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs seek opportunities and take risks, but unlike the former, they engage in change of organizational and social structures. Social entrepreneurs create businesses that contribute to change, not only for the individuals concerned, but also for the community at large. Network with other groups, locally, nationally and globally,
Today, our future is at stake at world level. The world is no longer a collection of nation states only, it became a system, a web of relationships. Changes in any one part of this system has effects on the whole, as it was shown by the recent financial and economic crisis. On the other hand, cultural homogenization is one of the most powerful factors of destruction of diversity. Therefore, new generations must be capable of acting responsibly at local level, while thinking global and connecting to action at global level. In other words, be g-local citizens: open to cultural diversity, and with a sense of responsibility not only towards what is near, but also what is far away; accountable to present and future generations and to the planet we all share.
Conclusions: a virtuous cycle growing active, responsible G-local citizens
Today's educational project must be able to support youth autonomous initiation and management of social change projects at the level of local communities, though raising awareness of related global issues and facilitating worldwide interchange and networking between local experiences, in the context of shared universal values.
In the words of the French philosopher Edgar Morin, “Ethics cannot be taught as a moral lesson. It must take shape in people’s minds through awareness that a human being is at once an individual, a member of a society, a member of species. A new conscience is emerging: humanity is swept up in an unpredictable adventure. Awareness of being united in life and death connects us to each other in our community of planetary fate.” The opportunity offered to small groups to network with other groups, locally, nationally and globally, can be a mind opening experience toward awareness about wider and complex societal issues that have an influence on conditions and range of choices in everyday life of the individual and his/her community. With the adequate commitment and support of national and international institutions, as well as of educational and youth related valuesbased organizations, and other global and local relevant actors, this process will convert into a virtuous cycle where the individual can share ideals and concrete projects with his/her peers, positively intervening as a group in improving life conditions of theirs communities, connecting globally and sharing the results of their action, interact with wider issues and acquiring global consciousness, allowing for a new cycle to begin, by confirming the youngperson in his/her choice to commit for a better world and inspiring others to join the process
and grow into active, responsible g-local citizens.
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Panel № 3 Youth