PRESSRELEASE: British Youth
BRITISH YOUTH – TYPICAL EUROPEANS WITHOUT EUROPEAN IDENTITY
Quality of life is crucial to today’s youth, and British youth is no exception! British youth have typical European values, but they do not feel European. These are two conclusions of the new survey ”European Youth in a Global Context”, made by Kairos Future, an international futures research and strategy firm with headquarters in Stockholm. With this project, Kairos Future extends its yearly youth values and lifestyle surveys in Sweden and Scandinavia to a truly international level. The survey covers 17 countries and the UK is one of them. The aim of the survey is to provide companies, authorities and organizations with strategic information concerning future consumers, employees and citizens.
British youth work hard but only enough to be able to...
Career is not important to young Brits, but they think it’s important to work hard. They want jobs with clear boundaries and they do not think that an exciting and meaningful job is important in order to have a good life.
– Profession is much less important as an identity shaper for British youth than it is for other young Europeans, says Dr. Mats Lindgren, CEO of the Kairos Future Group.
...enjoy pleasures in life!
The Brits are frustrated consumers; in no other European country does a higher share of the young express that they can never afford the things they really want and they want to be able to live and eat well.
Quality of life and status – that’s what the young ones want
– Young people want quality of life, most of them choose a nice living environment to good work opportunities and they prefer a job that they can leave when the working day is over.
However, the long-term trend is moving in the direction towards work with high status and good career opportunities, says Anna Kiefer, Project Manager of ”European Youth in a Global Context”.
The world’s youth believe it is important to get higher education. Seven out of ten 16-19 year olds want to study at university and one out of eight is going for a doctor’s degree, but they have different motivation factors. Young Scandinavians study to get a good job, while young
Americans and Italians wish to make their families proud.
European with hesitation
Do young people have a European identity? Is it feasible to say that young people feel European? With hesitation. Scandinavians belong to the few who feel closer to their neighbors than with the rest of Europe, other countries feel as close to their neighboring countries as to the rest of Europe.
In general, the values of British youth are similar to the EU average. But they do not feel European. Most young Europeans feel close to other Europeans, but British youth do not. They feel even more distanced from Europeans than Chinese youth do!
In fact, it is not only about Europe; in all other countries in the survey young people feel closer to their compatriots than to foreigners, but British youth differ.
– In the UK the Commonwealth prevails. More British youth identify strongly with people from Oceania than with their fellow countrymen, says Anna Kiefer.
On our way to a global youth culture
Could you talk about a global youth culture, just because young people buy the same clothes, watch the same TV-programs, share songs with each other, upload pictures at Flickr and share movies on Youtube? Hardly, young people differ, just like older generations, between countries and continents.
– But there are several signs of an emerging global youth culture, because young people in different countries are more similar than adults, says Mats Lindgren. In addition, youth differ the same way throughout the world. Hence, when middle-aged Indians, Americans and Swedes speak of young people as different, they have identical experiences of that “difference”.
About the survey
Kairos Future has during the period 1990-2006 surveyed and analyzed over 17 000 replies from Swedish and Scandinavian high school students aged 18-20. “European Youth in a Global Context” included over 22 000 replies from 16-29 year olds and 30-50 year olds in 17 countries. They have answered questions about dreams and ambitions, what is important in life and work life, what is their ideal society and what determines their consumption patterns. The older age group is a reference sample that makes it possible to distinguish young people’s values from general contemporary values.
The survey has been conducted in collaboration with the Swedish Institute, Fondation pour l’Innovation Politique (Fondapol) in France, The Swedish Region of Södermanland, Fortum, The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan and The Institute for Information Industry (III) in Taiwan. The data collection has been made in collaboration with Zapera.
For more information:
Visit our website:
www.kairosfuture.com/en/international/projects/globalyouth
Or contact:
Sofia Johnsson, Project Coordinator
Tel: +46 70-531 94 74 or thru e-mail
