Young people are professionals of change

YOUTH STUDY In its "Youth Economy" study, the Zukunftsinstitut takes a new look at the topic of youth. The insight: today's young people will change society much more than previous generations. "Youth no longer exists," author Christian Schuldt states at the beginning of the study. Unlike a few decades ago, young people no longer form homogeneous movements. The most diverse lifestyles are flexibly combined. The concept of "youthfulness" has become just as flexible: It no longer has anything to do with age. It has become a general prerequisite for an "attractive life" and older people sometimes live more "youthful" lives than young people themselves. In order to adequately capture this "liquid youth" that has become "liquid", the study approaches the topic in a new way. Instead of first collecting empirical data in order to derive "appropriate" terms, the study explores the nature and impact of youth in a broader social context. The initial question is: What role does youth play in the context of digitalization and demographic change?Clearing up prejudicesThis new perspective opens our eyes to hidden skills and potential - and means that many sweeping judgments about today's youth need to be reinterpreted. Is the next generation really as "adapted" and "ego-tactical" as is often attributed to them? Quite the opposite: young people's ability to adapt to changing environments is in fact an active, highly developed ability to connect - and therefore something that the whole of society can learn from, especially for companies that are now faced with the question of how they can continue to be successful in times of fundamental upheaval. In separate chapters, the study illustrates the innovative impetus that today's young people can give to the world of work and the economy. And how companies can succeed in reaching and constructively integrating this highly flexible generation.Do-gooder 2.0With their forward-looking skills, today's young people are subtly turning our society upside down: they are not revolutionaries like previous generations. But as pioneers of sustainable lifestyles, values and norms, "liquid youth" has all the more impact. By not going against the trends of the times, but surfing the waves of change, they play a decisive role in shaping the future. The Zukunftsinstitut's youth study reveals what is only apparent at second or third glance: the youth of the 21st century, who are often criticized for their supposed indifference, have great potential to improve the world. After all, their diverse, often confusing appearances conceal existential questions about the future: How and for what do we want to work? And what kind of society do we want to live in in the future? http://www.zukunftsinstitut.de/artikel/youth-economy/