I'll stir the pot a little. ;) The call below is built on good intentions and it's great that a sense of identity, built around shared experiences, might be emerging amongst a generation. However, remembering what roads to difficult places are often paved with, a couple of points.
I am a middle-aged parent and remember well being a young person in the early 1970's when unemployment (in Australia, but elsewhere too) was at its highest levels since the great depression. Those levels have not been seen since amongst most OECD nations (Spain and Greece currently have higher levels, at around 20%). I was technically unemployed for the first ten years of my adult life and that experience instilled the value of sharing (communal living). Generation Y might find a lot of empathic middle-aged people out there who have memories of sharing experiences similar to their own. The neo-liberals are a group to which most people, of any generation, do not belong and are generally hostile to. The advent of online communications is not something generation Y can claim to itself. Generation X also had a lot to do with these developments, as did the generations before that. Internet use across different age groups is pervasive. It's good to share - with all... Why restrict this call to such a US centric context? What about the other 95% of the world's population? Best Simon On 08/01/2011 11:41, "info" <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > > I know many on the list may feel that this project isolates anyone 30 > upwards, and yes - calling this mentioned 'demographic blah blah' "old > people", is bordering on the offensive. Especially when we all know that > younger people are just as likely to be 'old' in spirit and imagination, > in contrast others who are older yet offer a kind of youthful agility > via their own various, perspectives and creative endeavours. But, the > context of this project does communicate a cultural sensibility which I > feel is significant in respect of how Neoliberalist ideology is > reshaping, socially constructing and re-engineering a whole generation, > and research around these issues are important; whatever processes > introduced. So, because of this I thought it a good idea to post it to > the list. > > Wishing you all well. > > marc > > (from the P2P Foundation email list) > > ---------------------- > > Dear Commoners & P2P community, > > Below my signature is Shareable's call for pitches and submissions > to an anthology we're putting together that's a how-to survive by sharing > and making handbook for Gen-Y. > > We imagine an anthology written by Gen-Y for Gen-Y. Much has been > written about this generation, but we want to give them a chance to tell > their > story, and to help their peers re-imagine the present and future as an > opportunity for vastly more meaningful and constructive lives and world > that what they may think lies before them. It will be a combination of > analysis and how-to. > > Please forward this call to other individuals and forums. And we welcome > your feedback and suggestions about our call. > > Thank you, > > Neal Gorenflo > Publisher, Shareable.net > > -- > > Share or Die, Youth in Recession Call for Submissions: > http://www.shareable.net/blog/share-or-die-youth-in-recession-call-for-submiss > ions > > Contemporary American 20-somethings face a disorienting set of > conditions. While only a few years ago pundits worried about the ³me² > generation, children raised in material abundance and cultural > vacuity, even college-educated young people have come to face to face > with hardship: > > - 85 percent of graduates move home with their parents (Twentysomething > Inc.) > - Official unemployment - a notoriously underestimating measure of a > population¹s immiseration hovers around 15 percent for young > Americans, one-third higher than the overall population¹s rate. > (Bureau of Labor Statistics) > - Self-employment, which is almost always precarious, shot up 27 > percent between 1995 and 2005. With employers hiring fewer and fewer > new employees, long-term secure employment is unrealistic for many > young people. (BLS) > - Youth has become such a material hardships that, for the first time > ever, today¹s college graduates face the same level of unemployment as > the general population. (BLS) > > Just when young Americans seem to need advice the most, the older > generation is least able to provide it. Having lived through > post-World War II prosperity, most middle-aged parents have never > experienced a job market this bad. For this generation of young adults > - ³Y² or ³millennial² or what have you - the future is hazy and the > present isn¹t much clearer. > > At the same time, America¹s young adults are well-educated and > resourceful. They have spear-headed the rise of online communications > technology, and lines of commonality that seemed impossible to draw a > generation ago are only a click away. For all the drawbacks of social > media (and it certainly has its share), it is a powerful force and a > resource an otherwise poor generation can largely call its own. The > current crisis presents a series of opportunities to break with what¹s > broken and build communities that are more self-reliant, sustainable, > and democratic. We¹re in the midst of a forced redefinition of our > values, where ³the good life² will be more about relationships and > experiences than possessions and titles. > > A confluence of economic and social factors have composed a generation > we do not understand - thus the now-iconic NY Times Magazine headline > ³What Is It About 20-Somethings?² Traditional forms of social > organization (at the workplace, young nuclear families) are on the > decline, while new forms develop in their wake. This shift presents a > host of hardships, but an equal number of possibilities for young > people to change the world we have been given. > > Its with all this in mind that we begin the Share Or Die project. Over > the next few months, I will be collecting and editing an eBook about > youth in recession for Shareable, and I need your help. Just as no one > person experiences as a generation, no one person could write this > collection. Rather than keep to the circle of established professional > writers (a category that includes few young people), we decided to > present an open call to our readers and their wider communities. > > Here¹s what we¹re looking for: > > Stories from the front lines: What is it like to try and get by in > America as a young person these days? What is it like to try and do > more? We¹re not looking for simple stories of triumph or catastrophe, > but productive struggle. There may not be easy solutions, but there > are tactics and strategies, and we want to hear yours. These can be > advice from experience (e.g. ³What not to do as a freelancer²) or > stories without an easy lesson. > > DIY How-to¹s: If we can¹t afford to buy stuff, we¹re going to have to > do a lot more making, repairing, and sharing. Share Or Die is supposed > to be a useful guide for young people, so this section is going to be > the core of the collection. These are practical tutorials, but they > can be as material as building a backyard herb garden or as immaterial > as starting a band. We¹re concerned with the big stuff here: housing, > transportation, food, relationships, non-traditional forms of work, > travel, that kind of thing. > > Analysis: Young people get our lives explained to us by a lot of > publications, now it¹s our turn. How are we to understand our > generational situation, and how can we use our common resources to > improve it? We¹re looking for ideas outside the traditional > government-non-profit axis and beyond any partisan program. Possible > topics include: youth and technology, common space, sharing and > property, the contemporary workplace. > > Art: Although it¹s a prose-centric project, Share Or Die would be > incomplete without art. We¹re hoping to include some cartoons, graphic > art, and illustrations that address the above themes. We¹ll look at > graphics with or without pieces of writing, but combined is probably > best. If you¹re an artist or graphic designer interested in working on > the project but without any particular idea, send some samples of your > work anyway and we¹ll see what we can think up. Cool (and relevant) > data visualizations are especially welcome. > > We¹ll be accepting pitches and completed pieces (1,000-3,000 words) > during the month of January. Writers and artists from traditionally > underrepresented communities are particularly encouraged to submit. > Although youth is a perspective rather than a number, we¹re > predominantly trying to showcase writers in their twenties; old people > with lots of great ideas about how young people should live are > discouraged from submitting. We¹ll be paying for selected pieces at > average non-profit publication rates - not mind-blowing, but we know > even writers and designers need to eat every once in a while. For > legal reasons, we can¹t accept already published material unless it > was published under an open license (e.g. Creative Commons). Send > questions as well as submissions and pitches, along with links to a > sample or two and your online presence in any and all public forms you > choose (Twitter, blog, tumblr, etc.) to [email protected]. > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > Simon Biggs [email protected] http://www.littlepig.org.uk/ [email protected] http://www.elmcip.net/ http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/ _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
