youth: the right to a place in the sun

Candido Alberto Gomes

[email protected] | Universidade Católica de Brasília, Brazil

abstract
Changing population patterns aggravated by the financial crisis unleashed in 2008
reveal altered population dynamics that include increased longevity, population age-
ing and an expanding moratorium on youth. As generations that are more markedly
defined sociologically take shape, a population bulge of young people awaiting work
opportunities and the chance to become productive adults has now formed that
demonstrates revolutionary potential. The transformations underway are leading to a
re-dimensioning of traditional intergenerational resource transfers and underscoring
the vulnerability of the various generations, particularly the adult generation, which
is under increased pressure. In this context, education appears to be a dead end in
several countries, since it no longer functions as a means toward social ascension.
The over-rated value of the diplomas being conferred has become apparent and con-
trasts sharply with societies that are actually dedicated to reducing jobs and making
employment increasingly precarious. It is a crisis scenario in which the legitimacy of
education is seriously being questioned.

key words
Youth; Demographics; Labour; Education.

SISYPHUS
journal of education
volume 1, issue 2,
2013, 10-37
Youth: The Right to a Place in the Sun1
Candido Alberto Gomes

In memory of Amanda, pole star,

celestial anchor in the navigation of the known
and the unknown.

IN T RODUC T ION

The millennial dynamics of the human species involves generational suc-

cession whereby adults prepare the new members of society for the future,
grow old and then gradually withdraw from the scene, while the youths
grow into adulthood and become full-scale protagonists. This cycle has been
as dependable as the rising and setting of the sun, and has only been broken
by natural or man-made catastrophes such as the crushing defeat inflicted
on peoples by war. Now, however, the times seem to have heralded the ad-
vent of a generational abyss of a different kind. The prolongation of human
life and other factors such as job cuts have seemingly prolonged the limbo of
youth. Although today’s youth have been better schooled and prepared than
their forebears, their entrance into adulthood, typified by the constitution
of new families in which they are the main protagonists, is being increasing-
ly postponed. Admittedly, this new generation has a lot to teach its predeces-
sors, and could transform the monologue that once prevailed into a dialogue.
Yet adults are being called on to maintain their offspring longer so that their
children eventually acquire the means to retire. Worse yet, there are some

1 Thanks are due to Prof. Ivar César Oliveira de Vasconcelos for his kind critique of the text and the
elaboration of some of the calculations. Any limitations, however, must be attributed to the author.

11
among the elderly who would prefer to see their deaths hastened in order
to benefit society at large, as said by Japan’s finance minister (Hills, 2013).
This unprecedented rupture seems to have intensified following the glob-
al financial crisis that began in 2008. It has shaken a generation that fully
expected to achieve inter-generational ascension, since it enjoyed a longer
period of formal schooling; instead, it now finds itself facing the reality of
unemployment and precarious work. It is highly significant that this sce-
nario, for which some writers blame the “laws” of the market, along with
the desire of some to see the elderly usher themselves out of this world,
stands in stark contrast to human rights, a concept that seems to be fading
the farther we drift from the post-war period and enter a formerly unex-
pected dystopia. If this “lost” generation is to fully enjoy its human rights,
these rights, in sum, will include the right to a place in the sun, not just for
personal benefit, but to avoid the unprecedented societal suffering that may
come about from the rupture of a type of generational succession that has
been in place since pre-history.
This introductory text seeks to delineate the profile of the current situ-
ation, its unprecedented risks and some of the social-educational implica-
tions it harbours. It is the educators’ job to be highly aware of developments
taking place in their fields so that they are able to assess the transformations
that are taking place in the present and those that are likely to come about
in the near future. In effect the evidence shows that educators’ Sisyphean
efforts are becoming increasingly painful, subject as they are to new and
uncertain routines.

SISY PH US & JA N US

Although Sisyphus’s torment may be worsening, we may be somewhat heart-

ened by looking into the past as a way of dissipating the mists that envelop
us. In this respect Janus, the god of portals and doorways, invites us, in his
literally two-faced capacity, to look back and to look forward. As we straddle
the threshold of the two doorways it would be well to remember some pa-
laeographic data and demographic history. Research informs us that early
hominids rarely lived longer than forty years. Thirteenth century English
aristocrats who managed to live past the age of 21 could expect an additional
43.1 years of life. In the middle of the Enlightenment, life expectancy in

12   candido alberto gomes

France was just 43.1 years. In the United States from 1900 to 1902 it was
no more than 49.2 years, but by 2007-11 it had jumped to 78 (Gomes, 2012).
While it is admittedly risky to generalise, it is fairly safe to assert that the
movement that expanded the populational accordion ended up giving rise,
at least in the West, to our current concepts of childhood and youth and to
the definition of numerous stages to categorise – not only youth – but old
age as well. The asymmetrical stretching of the age-group accordion, first
of all cuts childhood short, or according to Postman (1994) leads to its dis-
appearance altogether. The expanded adolescence that follows ends in an
ambiguous period of change that is typified by a marked postponement of
the moment when the youth is to assume typical adult responsibilities such
as working at a relatively stable job, establishing a conjugal relationship,
having children and maintaining one’s own household. Galland (1997) calls
this period post-adolescence and it consists of a prolongation of the period of
waiting and expectation, often occupied by efforts to acquire higher school-
ing levels in the frequently frustrated hopes of obtaining a better future.
Authors like Arnett (2004) prefer the term “emergent adulthood” and they
describe it as a dilated period of self-focusing and exploring possibilities
throughout one’s twenties, but also as a phenomenon that is geographically,
culturally and socially determined.
Focusing his analysis on the United States, Arnett also explains that this
stage is linked to the fragility of the job scenario that has come about as a
result of economic globalization, deindustrialization and the exportation of
employment positions. It is a reality that contrasts sharply with that of the
past when, upon finishing high school, young people were in a position to
set up their own families and raise children. The situation begs the question:
what came first, the chicken or the egg? Did the prolonged period of waiting
arise from the socio-cultural and educational conditions or is it the result
of the shrinking field of jobs and the fragility of employment conditions?
If the latter case is true, does it mean that schooling, right up to its highest
levels, plays the leading role in a farce designed merely to pass the time and
promote false hopes of social insertion?
These new rites of passage, with their comings and goings, unlike the
rites of yesteryear, most certainly benefit increased consumption, whilst the
young, as confirmed consumers, after forcibly leaving behind their life as
chrysalises, seem never to get beyond the butterfly stage. Instead, they flit
from flower to flower for as long as someone is prepared to finance them or,

youth: the right to a place in the sun   13

which is rarer, for as long as they finance themselves. This labyrinth of disil-
lusionment is fertile ground for a generation that neither works nor studies.
As research progresses into inter-generational transfer of resources, it has
become clear that someone needs to finance the generation that is ageing and
its respective successors. However, having verified that the gates are closed
(and have been locked even tighter since the 2008 crisis), the young have
had to find spaces to stagnate in, even though, since early childhood, they
have been urged to be more precocious, independent and pro-active about
their own lives. Thus, it comes as no surprise that some, unable to access the
scintillating world of consumerism, have vented their frustrations by taking
part in rebellious, splinter movements in which burning cars and buildings
and looting shops is the order of the day. The whole scenario intensifies the
overall feeling of fear and instils in these youth the impression that they
have become the “extradited members of an underclass” (Bauman, 2011).

A N AGEING WOR LD V S. YOUNG PEOPLE IN LIM BO

Long-term statistical forecasting regarding population is not known for its

precision. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that such extrapolations are use-
ful insofar as they manage to indicate probable direction. Table 1 delineates
the profile of a world with a smaller population of children, adolescents and
young people and adults and a much larger population of the elderly, who
are expected to quadruple by 2020. The future also promises to show a con-
centration of population in the world’s least developed regions. In the year
2000, there was one inhabitant in the developed regions for every five global
inhabitants. This ratio is expected to go to one for every eight by the eve of
the 22nd century (table 1). At the extreme end of the ageing gradient, in 50
years Europe can expect to see its percentage of older people triple. Its over-
all population will diminish through to 2100 with children and adolescents
making up only 14.6% of the population (using current classifications for the
terms) in 2050. Portugal, in turn, is expected to lose one third of its present
population by 2100 and become a country in which about one third of the
population is elderly. By the year 2050, it is predicted that the Portuguese
population of 14 and under will reach its minimum level of 12.5%. The 15 to
64 age group will end up predominating at 53.5%.

14   candido alberto gomes

 TABLE 1 - POPULATION PROFILE BY AGE IN CHANGE, 2000-2200

Age groups (years) 2000 2050 2100 2150 2200

WORLD
0-14 30.1 20.1 16.4 16.5 16.5
15-64 63.0 64.0 59.2 56.0 54.7
65+ 6.9 15.9 24.4 27.5 28.8
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
Millions 6,071 8,919 9,064 8,494 8,596
MORE DEVELOPED
REGIONS
0-14 18.3 15.7 16.9 16.4 15.7
15-64 67.4 58.4 55.5 54.4 52.4
65+ 14.3 25.9 27.7 29.3 31.9
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
Millions 1,194 1,220 1,131 1,161 1,207
LESS DEVELOPED
REGIONS
0-14 33.0 20.8 16.4 16.5 16.6
15-64 61.9 64.9 59.7 56.2 55.1
65+ 5.1 14.3 23.9 27.2 28.2
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
Millions 4,877 7,699 7,933 7,333 7,291
EUROPE
0-14 17.5 14.8 17.0 16.5 15.9
15-64 67.8 57.3 56.1 55.0 52.8
65+ 14.7 27.9 26.9 28.5 31.3
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
Millions 728.0 631.9 538.4 550.4 573.7
PORTUGAL
0-14 16.2 12.5 15.4 … …
15-64 67.6 53.5 54.0 … …
65+ 16.2 34.0 30.6 … …
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
Millions 10,016 9,027 7,335 7,401 7,729

Source: United Nations (2004). Projections: medium variant. Portugal: population by age: UN, Population
Division (2004), World Population Prospects: the 2010 Revision, pp. 22, 27-8, 49, 68, 233-5.

youth: the right to a place in the sun   15

 It is clear, therefore, that the revolution in course is affecting all sectors,
altering the focus of production, consumption, taxation, and public and pri-
vate transfers by age groups. With regard to education, schools are expected
to be virtually or totally empty or hobble on throughout the period of youth
as institutions with thinly disguised custodial functions. That is, if they
manage to survive up till then at all, somewhat like old remnants sewn onto
a new piece of cloth.
Obliged, as they will be, to break down time-honoured bureaucratic bar-
riers, educational institutions will find themselves in a position where they
not only have to attract and retain young people for much longer periods
of time, but also identifying and addressing the needs of adults and the el-
derly throughout the course of their lives, which involves providing voca-
tional education. All of these changes will alter the direction of research
and teacher education. At this point, adults and old people are the huge X
factor of the equation – unknown yet increasingly indispensable – and it
will be important to analyse how they learn best and what they actually
want to learn. Scenarios can be envisaged wherein the demands of those pro-
tagonists being educated will override whatever “mature” generations have
prescribed for the “immature ones” (Durkheim, 1968). The future may well
oblige continents to learn to live with the shrinking of their economic activi-
ties and renounce sacrosanct concepts such as the continuous growth of the
Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is calculated on the basis of supposedly
aggregated wealth. This would be, however, without subtracting the value
of natural resources they consume, especially the non-renewable resources.
The populational horizon appears both bright and gloomy. Will declin-
ing population lead to less consumption, lower productivity and profits and
an overall deterioration in the fiscal situation? Will it imply less military,
political and civil power? Are there, at the same time, prospects for a better
capital-to- population ratio and a reduction in the costs caused by congestion
and overcrowding? The knowledge generation and technological innovation
are positive factors, but which countries will be privy to them? (Coleman &
Rowthorn, 2011; Eberstadt, 2010). Do all of these doubts spring from a process
that has only just started?
On a worldwide scale, the youth dependency threshold has tended to in-
crease and will be at age 27 by the year 2200. The elderly dependency thresh-
old will go up from age 54 to age 79 in the course of two centuries. In just half
a century, post-retirement duration is expected to drop from 11.8 years to 8.7

16   candido alberto gomes

and only overtake the year 2000 figure again in 2200. Even when the data
are broken down in line with the economies that are more or less developed,
one sees a noticeable convergence of tendencies with regard to population
ageing. In Europe, the youth dependency threshold will reach its height of
age 29 in the year 2050, while the dependency threshold for the elderly will
jump from age 65 to 75 in just half a century and by 2200 reach the age mark
of 82. Social welfare problems are hidden by the figures for post-retirement
duration, which in Europe will tend to fall only to increase again later, re-
flecting the probable cycles of overburdening and relief in the relations be-
tween beneficiaries and contributors of various generations.
Different parts of the world are displaying situations of either demo-
graphic dividend or debt, the former being a result of fewer children and
adolescents linked to a proportional increase in the numbers of productive
adults before the group of old people has begun to expand. The latter is due
to the adult group’s diminishing birth rates because of the high cost of rais-
ing children, while at the same time, longevity and the number of elderly
are increasing. In Europe, the dividend has already been spent, while in
Africa it is just beginning.
In the midst of the demographic debt, aggravated by crises like the one
sparked in 2008, and in the presence of a decline in fertility and birth rates,
a population bottleneck has been formed. In short, there is a bulge of young
people awaiting their turn for a place in the sun, while the older generations
struggle to maintain theirs while enjoying the fruits of a social security sys-
tem they have contributed to over their lifetimes (tables 2 and 3). Unfortu-
nately, such bulges are liable to generate political violence when waiting
gives way to desperation. The sense of hopelessness is fuelled by factors such
as the size of the bulge and a youth gender ratio in which males predomi-
nate in the respective age groups involved (Urdal, 2012). Indeed, the world
as a whole and the less developed regions alike tend to have a higher ratio of
youths to adults, which may decline somewhat over time, but will nonethe-
less continue to remain high.

youth: the right to a place in the sun   17

 TABLE 2 - DEPENDENCY THRESHOLD AGES AND POST-RETIREMENT DURATION,
2000-2200

Area/region 2000 2050 2100 2200

WORLD
Young dependency
14 22 26 27
threshold*
Old dependency
54 66 74 79
threshold**
Post-retirement
11.8 8.7 9.0 13.0
duration***
MORE DEVELOPED
REGIONS
Young dependency
23 27 26 28
threshold*
Old dependency
65 75 78 82
threshold**
Post-retirement
11.0 7.5 10.7 13.9
duration***
LESS DEVELOPED
REGIONS
Young dependency
13 21 27 27
threshold*
Old dependency
50 65 73 78
threshold**
Post-retirement
13.4 9.2 8.8 12.9
duration***
EUROPE
Young dependency
24 29 26 28
threshold*
Old dependency
65 75 77 82
threshold**
Post-retirement
9.0 5.7 10.3 13.7
duration***

Source: United Nations, 2004, p. 75.

* Age at which dependency must end if young dependents
are to be limited to less than 30% of the population.
** The earliest possible retirement age if old dependents
are to be limited to less than 15% of the population.
*** Difference between life expectancy and the retirement threshold age.

18   candido alberto gomes

 TABLE 3 - YOUTH BULGE: PERCENTAGE OF YOUTH POPULATION OVER ADULT POPULATION,
2000-2100

Region/Years 2000 2025 2050 2100

World 45.7 30.3 27.0 25.4

More developed regions 41.1 31.9 35.5 38.2

Less developed regions 43.2 31.9 27.5 25.4

Africa 59.2 49.5 39.7 28.5

Europe 41.1 29.6 33.1 37.9

Portugal 44.4 28.1 27.4 35.5

Source of the original data: UN, Population Division estimates, 2010 Revision.
Youth defined as the 15-24 year age group for the world, less developed regions and Africa.
Adult population defined as the 25-64 year age group for the same regions.
Youth defined as the 15-29 year age group for more developed regions, Europe and Portugal.
Adult population defined as the 30-69 year age group for the same regions.

The panorama is further complicated because economies and technologies

have emerged that increasing require less and less manpower, and especially
less manpower engaged in steady employment, which is the basis of funding
social welfare initiatives. In addition, the bottleneck keeps getting narrower
because job creation is slower than the economic expansion when the latter
actually does occur. It should also be noted that just as income groups do not
necessarily form social classes, age groups do not automatically constitute
conscious generations (Mannheim, 2011) with their own clear objectives.
Thus, certain situations may explode into destructive movements with little
leadership, similar to the European riots of recent memory or the revolu-
tionary upheavals of the 60s.

L OSSES A ND G A INS: NAT IONA L T R A NSFER ACCOUN T S

The relationships involved are so complex that systematic research has been
undertaken into the intergenerational transfer of resources. The age groups
that consume income rather than generate it have been identified as child-

youth: the right to a place in the sun   19

hood and old age. Between the two lies the age group of adults. Income not
only meets this group’s needs but stretches to provide transfers to both the
young and the old.
Three resource situations are linked to this sequence of groups: deficit,
surplus and deficit again, in old age. The Net Intergenerational Transfers
(NIT) project (Lee & Mason, 2011) found that in 2010, there were 23 aged econ-
omies. By 2040, there will be 89, and by 2070, 155. According to their study,
somewhere around the middle of this century, most of the adult group’s re-
sources will actually be devoted to their predecessors. Although it is not the
intention of this work to enter into details, some points must be highlighted:
1) The age group consisting of the elderly is not necessarily a deadweight.
They may actually give rise to another form of demographic dividend since,
as happens in Spain (Paxtot, Rentería, Sánchez-Romero & Souto, 2011), they
contribute to co-financing young people by, among other things, living with
them and looking after their grandchildren. Of course this scenario depends
on the compression of morbidity and may even involve extending the time
that old people work. Thus, the elderly may not necessarily represent an
impediment to economic growth. However, a dilemma may arise in this
case: should resources be channelled to the children, adolescents and young
people and used essentially for their health and education, or should they
be funnelled to the elderly and used mainly for health care? These options,
however, are not necessarily mutually exclusive in all circumstances.
2) The demographic dividend makes a significant contribution to econom-
ic growth, since having fewer children means that they will receive more
resources and obtain better health care and education. In other words, the
workers offer will be more satisfactory. However, in some societies like In-
dia, the lack of adequate preparation means that youngsters have low levels
of employability (Chandrasekhar, Ghosh & Roychowdury, 2006). The bulge
there means that on the labour supply side, while there are indeed more
young people, they are not necessarily endowed with health, education or
employability. On the demand side, however, what needs to be questioned is
the creation of jobs and their quality, and what technologies and economic
decisions should guide vocational structuring and the public and private ca-
pacity to allocate resources. Again, the existence of a large, young popula-
tion that is supposedly better prepared does not necessarily mean that the
demographic dividend will result in collective or individual benefits. The
very abundance of available youngsters may create a queue for jobs in which

20   candido alberto gomes

only the more “interesting” are actually employed, thereby boosting frustra-
tion among the throngs of remaining job-seekers.
3) Getting back to the three stages of life, it has been noted that in de-
veloped regions young people have had to wait longer for their turn, espe-
cially in times of economic crisis. Their dependence on their forebears is
prolonged; and the time to form their own families is delayed. There are
deleterious effects caused by long periods of precarious employment, unem-
ployment and attempting to avoid the consequences of a bad beginning that
might jeopardise their future careers. The powerful, far-reaching effects of
the first job on a person’s career have long been known (Blau & Duncan,
1967). One of the results of this state of affairs is the possible shortening of
the period of income/consumption surplus experienced by adults which, in
turn, may have a negative impact on their retirement. Indeed, Lai (2011) has
pointed out two important moments in the lives of young people: the mo-
ment of financial independence and the moment of economic self-sufficien-
cy. In the case of the former, the age when labour income exceeds private
consumption. In the case of the moment of economic self-sufficiency, the
age when labour income exceeds total consumption. In Spain and the United
States, those two moments occur at age 24 and 26 respectively. In Germany,
they occur at 24 and 27. At the opposite extreme, in Senegal, these ages were
determined to be 33 and 35; in Nigeria 31 and 32; in Indonesia, 27 and 29; and
in Brazil, 25 and 30. The data seem to suggest that waiting periods differ
among countries with different income levels, but not in the way one might
expect. What can be said of Senegal, Nigeria, Indonesia and Brazil is that
young people have to go through a painful rite of passage and overcome many
obstacles to obtain any kind of employment that is not inherently precari-
ous. In these countries, the widespread use of child and adolescent labour
degrades prevailing labour conditions and wage levels so that even when
young people are employed, their modest, unstable incomes can barely cov-
er their private consumption or guarantee their economic self-sufficiency.
Thus, it would seem that the condition of youth is one of burdens. Some
of these burdens are shared by all and vary only in the degree and nature of
the precariousness of employment, the relatively low level of income, unem-
ployment and underemployment, and devoting oneself to studying during
the waiting period, which may be full-time or in tandem with work. There is
also the other situation in which the individual neither studies nor works.
If, as a result of national and social circumstances, the time young people

youth: the right to a place in the sun   21

 are obliged to spend before they can become full-fledged adults (something
that for some of them will not even come to pass at all) has been greatly
protracted, then, given the population dynamics described above, the conse-
quences can be serious indeed (chart 1).

CHART 1 - SOME EFFECTS OF THE LONG WAIT IMPOSED ON YOUTH

CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE WORKING AGE GROUP OLD DEPENDENTS

Tendency to decrease ← in an Decreasing percentage in view of Increasing proportion of the total
indirect manner < fertility and birth population ageing. population.
rate. When employed, produce more than
Consume over a longer period. they consume.
Produce little ← precarious Consume more than they produce.
employment, low wages.
Prolonged schooling, nevertheless,
tendency to decreasing return on it.
School has a merely custodial
function.
Longer period in the parental
household.
Child birth postponed ← < fertility Make private inter and intra-
and birth rate. household financial transfers (to Financing the deficit
Financing the consumption/ children and adolescents) over a - income from work (when employed);
production deficit: longer period. - re-allocation of assets accumulated
- need for greater public finance Make private inter and intra- over their lifetime’s;
transfers whose main constraints are: household financial transfers directly - private inter and intra-household
- unemployment benefit constraints; to their antecedents or through transfers;
- limitations to public financing for tax channels (old people) and also - other private transfers (e.g.
health and education. forever a longer period of time due to philanthropic institutions);
- Need for bigger private inter increased longevity of old people - public transfers;
and intra-household transfers → Need to generate greater income and According to culture and other
deterioration of conditions in low- savings to cover: conditions may make private inter or
income categories. - own consumption; intra-household transfers to younger
- offspring’s consumption; generations.
- antecedents’ consumption;
- own retirement.
Tend to work for a longer period due
to:
- generalised longevity increase;
- changes in social security
regulations;
- need to cover the longer waiting
period of young people (smaller and
later returns on investments under
their care).
Tendency to decreased income when
economy slows down.
Significant difficulty in getting a job
when over a certain age.

22   candido alberto gomes

In the past the adult generation has always formed the pivot. However, it is
presently being squeezed at either end by the younger and older generations.
Furthermore, it seems that an intergenerational trench is being dug as a re-
sult of the unprecedented delay in the younger generation’s taking on the
roles of adult life and the burgeoning bulge formed by the bottleneck that
has obstructed their entry into the world of work. In addition to the stigma
associated with precarious forms of employment, which marks people for
the rest of their careers (Chauvel, 2010; Letablier & Sales, 2013), young people
may be obliged to endure increasingly long periods of dependence until they
are called on to occupy whatever positions have become vacant through the
gradual passage of the adult generation into old age.
The whole process is conducted under the aegis of the educational func-
tion of “seed sowing” which, with the active collaboration of educators, has
promoted the notion that acquiring more education will serve as a social
”leg up”. Obviously, young people will be conditioned by the variety of socio-
economic realities in which they live (Pais, 1990). What then can one expect
of this generation that lives with precariousness, and a culture of idleness
in which the time is passed, devoid of hope or expectation and fraught with
the despair that uncertainty has brought about? How will this generation be
able to take its place in the sun after such a prolonged moratorium, and after
having left school so long ago?
On the other hand, the glaring insufficiencies that have been noted, es-
pecially since the 2008 onset of the crisis, reveal how poorly the “seed sow-
ing” has worked, because children living in the European Union today now
comprise the age group that is most threatened by poverty and social exclu-
sion (López Vilaplana, 2013). The situation has arisen against a backdrop of
social moratorium in which no direct relationship has been established be-
tween precarious employment and fertility. It is rather a relationship that
has been oriented by various factors such as each country’s social policies.
Could all of this presage a downward spiral in which masses of young
people are careening toward social disadvantage? Given the steady contrac-
tion of the “protected” labour market, which at this point still honours la-
bour and social security rights, what chance will the squeezed generation
have to save up and provide for its own old age? Indeed, the period of surplus
after consumption seems to be relatively short: 27 years in Spain and 28 in
Chile (Bravo & Holtz, 2011; Patxot, Rentería, Sánchez-Romero & Souto, 2011).
How will these developments impact the fragile webs of social solidarity?

youth: the right to a place in the sun   23

And how will they affect education? If available resources are shrinking and
returns on supposed investments in schooling are increasingly disappoint-
ing, those who were formerly interested in education may easily become
disinterested in the near future. With the yawning socio-economic and so-
cio-cultural gap that separates the generations, the frustrated promises of
schooling now threaten to widen the gap even further.

A DEP OLIT IC ISED GEN ER AT ION?

The bitter experiences of youth are glaringly evident in many parts of the
world. Chauvel (2006, 2010) questions the rupture of the generational pact in
light of the “insider-ization” of the previous generation and the “outsider-
ization” of the new generation. The failure to create jobs, especially those of
a certain level and quality, the apparent fallacy of the educational promise
and the additional strain brought on by immigration and its consequences
with regard to socio-economic and cultural insertion, have engendered a
breeding ground fraught with challenges. Youth now either mistrusts or is
indifferent to politics. It has lost representation in the spheres of power,
including the trade unions. Riots have broken out in big cities, recently even
in Stockholm where like everywhere else, deregulation and “budgetary dis-
cipline” are taking their toll.
These desperate, violent demonstrations, carried out by poorly coordinat-
ed groups without any apparent political driving force, have been treated by
the States and the public at large merely as matters for the police to handle.
Could a revolutionary generation be in the making, or at least a large mass
of youth that is heading towards anomic individualism and de-socialisation?
As mentioned above, Mannheim (2011) does not confuse generations with
specific age groups. Instead he typifies generations as involving, among
other things, shared horizons and a shared spirit of the times. Like social
classes, they exist, but not in and of themselves. Certain generational units
may constitute concrete groups such as the youth and student movements of
the 60s. It would seem that unfavourable living conditions do not automati-
cally lead to youth revolutions.
However, the onward progression of generations involves a loss of ac-
cumulated cultural assets (Weller, 2010). Accordingly, this implies that for
youth there is interplay between the selective ability to remember and to

24   candido alberto gomes

forget that is conditioned by a set of cultural filters that do not, however,
enable one to foresee what will be discarded and what will not. Today’s great
gulf of separation makes intergenerational communication all the more dif-
ficult. This naturally impacts school life and communication between stu-
dents and teachers, one of the most important cultural continuity bridges
there is. Because these two groups have different generational orientations
that include having grown up in different time periods and different ways
of handling adversity, non-communication manifests itself not only in sym-
bolic and physical forms of violence but in acts of rudeness and incivility.
These manifestations are taking place alongside a revolution in informa-
tion technology. It is a revolution that is more deep-seated than the invention
of the printing press and one that is perhaps more capable of mobilizing the
power to forget than it is of sparking the power to remember. Predictions are
difficult to make when we cannot anticipate what is likely to be forgotten.
There is a risk, however, that there will be a rupture in political sociali-
sation and non­‑transmission of democracy from generation to generation
(Chauvel, 2010). If young people discover that the political system they in-
herited from adults can only offer them a way down, they may very well
turn their backs on it and/or seek to replace it. The similarity of today’s
predicament to the era of the Great Depression strongly suggests that we
should not lightly dismiss the nefarious appeals of totalitarianism, authori-
tarianism and populism. Indeed a gathering mist seems to shroud the road
ahead and our schools are not likely prepared to serve as the bridge to con-
nect generations or even as an effective tool for repairing the damage that
this new era is now inflicting.

IS EDUC AT ION A FA RC E?

Education cannot remain indifferent to the scenario depicted above, because

it is a major protagonist. Young people and society as a whole have been led
to believe that education has noble missions, one of which is social stratifi-
cation based at least partially on merit, which in turn contributes to social
democratisation. If this premise is taken to be true, it then makes sense to
spend more time in school, putting up with the tedium, enduring painful
bouts of tests and examinations, and complying with the increasing number
of laps that the powers that be keep adding to the race.

youth: the right to a place in the sun   25

 What is actually emerging, however, is a feeling that the promises have
been false and that there is a lost generation – not lost for lack of school-
ing – but rather for an excess of it, because students’ skills do not dovetail
with the job market, and no occupational niches corresponding to the skills
students have gained have been generated. Yet a considerable number of
educators have been blind to these facts. In short, it has become easier to
keep children and adolescents occupied with school to avoid their becoming
occupied with other things.
A polemical book on this very issue emerged out of the flames of the
2008 crisis: Le Déclassement (Peugny, 2009). It addresses the question of social
descent. Contrary to what the French Republic proclaims, social ascension
is harder than ever for youngsters belonging to the poorer classes. And even
for the offspring of the better-off, downward mobility seems increasingly
probable. The prospect of a society based on merit has gradually disappeared
while the ties linking social advancement and schooling have weakened and
the social status of the parents is strengthened, insuring the position of the
inheritors.
Other research works such as those of Dore (1976) and Collins (1979) had
already discussed such latent frustrations. The idea of education for all to
some extent embodies certain ideals of modernity stemming from the En-
lightenment. At the time it was supposed that entering school and sticking it
out would awaken the powers of reason, making human beings better people
and, more pragmatically, providing the means to climb the social ladder.
Social upward mobility is a declining stimulus for keeping children, adoles-
cents and young people at school, in a context of cultural plurality and so-
cial background diversity. Under the often contradictory pressures of school
demands and peer groups, this begs the question whether it is better to be a
well-adjusted youth and a poorly adjusted student or the other way around.
As the promises of fulfilment gradually disappear into thin air, it be-
comes harder and harder for students living in consumer societies to stay in
school. They experience mounting waves of irritation, boredom, non-confor-
mity and difficulty in accepting rules that are often obsolete. As the grad-
ual breakdown of the educational system marches on, schools increasingly
resemble custodial institutions whose main function is to keep society’s
younger members under control. A portion of the students, however, man-
age to be sufficiently practical and resistant and soldier on, adopting the
attitude that without sufficient schooling, things could be even worse for

26   candido alberto gomes

them. There are at least two persuasive arguments that work in the school’s
favour:

(1) As Collins (1979) pointed out in his treatise on credentialism, at the offi-
cial level, schools have a total monopoly of the credentials that are most
valuable for social insertion, that is, the diplomas and certificates they
issue.
(2) As the number of credential holders in a given society goes up, the value
of the credentials goes down. This sparks an inflationary process that is
further aggravated when job opportunities and the employment market
fail to increase in the same proportion, or worse, spiral downward, as
they have today.

Although these arguments are rational enough, they do not help to allay the
frustration, social decline, concentration of income, poverty and feeling of
uselessness that arise when the dominant cultures apply them to the devel-
opment of identity. If the ship of education is already leaking badly, is there
any way to make schools seaworthy in the future? Are new horizons opening
up for a society without schools (Illich, 1971)?
With regard to this subject, the literature examines at least three funda-
mental contradictions underlying the school as we know it: an institution
that has ostensibly been designed to put the ideals of modernity into prac-
tice (Touraine, 1992):
(1) Although schools maintain the official monopoly on credentials, they
have lost their monopoly of scientific and technical knowledge and have
now become a competitor among a host of many others.
(2) In many countries, the modernist ideal of making education accessible
to all has been achieved. However, new populations entering the system
have brought with them a variety of different social issues that were for-
merly only raised outside the school walls.
(3) When education was a privilege, school was viewed as a selective, presti-
gious institution and those outside were anxious to enter. With the democ-
ratisation of education, schools have received populations that no longer
find it as desirable as others did when it was elitist and that do not bring
with them the socio-cultural legacy that marked the students of the past
(Bourdieu & Passeron, 1970). Thus, for many school-goers, the experience
is synonymous with failure. As a result, some students defend their own

youth: the right to a place in the sun   27

 subjectivities, alienate themselves and rebel against the educational sys-
tem, finding this experience to be more acceptable and less damaging than
internalising failure.

If indeed all people are equal before the law and schooling is “a good thing”
(Dubet, 2001) that is the fulfilment of a human right, then schools should
cause everyone to achieve success. Yet, in reality, the price of failure, includ-
ing educational inflation, is tantamount to social exclusion.
Most sociologists believe that the world has traversed a number of di-
verse frontiers that include post-modernity, late modernity, liquid moder-
nity, network society and global risk society. Unfortunately, it seems that
school systems are dealing with these diverse challenges and contradictions
with the efficacy of a cracked, old vessel being made to hold new wine.

K NOW LED GE ECONOMY OR A LIENAT ION?

Addressing the crisis that began in 2008 and focusing on the United States,
Brown, Lauder and Ashton (2011) discuss the intense level of competition
in global capitalism that has brought about lower costs, including labour
costs, higher profits and, in many cases, lower prices. This has led to a fe-
verish wave of public and private investment in education, research and
innovation based on the premise that the higher people’s level of schooling
is the more likely they are to obtain better the jobs and higher incomes. Dis-
appointingly, however, large scale competition has actually led to the sim-
plification of work-related tasks and cuts in both staff and salaries. Thus,
only certain skills that are considered “strategic” reap lavish rewards for
performance like those that guarantee high corporate profits, which include
certain positions in the banking sector.
Thus when global capitalism launched its investment strategy targeting
human skills and capital in an attempt to see who would yield more, it de-
cided to do a classic 180. That is, it decided to see which of the more highly
qualified workers would accept the lowest salary in return for giving their
absolute best. The drive to see who will yield the highest quality for the low-
est cost primarily victimises young people who are attempting to get into the
labour market. This does not mean that the knowledge economy and society
are baseless or that technology and innovation are not absolutely vital for

28   candido alberto gomes

the new economic order but rather that global capitalism, in its bid to lower
costs, is doing its best to make labour markets more “flexible”, which actu-
ally means more precarious. In the labour arena competitors range from
unprecedentedly large groups of well-qualified individuals in the developed
countries to slave or semi-slave labour in the less developed countries, such
as the unfortunate individuals whose lives were snuffed out in the collapse
of a building in Bangladesh that was more unsafe than the slave quarters in
Brazil during its colonial era. Thus, a competition is in full swing that actu-
ally begins upon a person’s birth or even prior to it, that involves a quest
to obtain a bit of the educational system’s inflated currency while it is still
worth something as in the case of countries with greater cultural capital.
In contrast, the poor in both groups of countries continue to be as poor as
ever, if not poorer. To some extent, it is not surprising. A careful reading of the
Human Capital Theory makes it very clear that the law of supply and demand
forms the essential backdrop. The expansion or contraction of job structures
and the changes in job profiles were always implicit and conditioned school-
ing. As empirical data confirm, the relationship between education and in-
come is not linear. Even so, countless moths have been drawn to the open
flame of more and more education, as if it were the pass key to social democ-
ratisation and development. In ideological terms, a falsehood was being pur-
veyed and practiced. However, it is obvious that there is a lot to be done on the
supply side in terms of increasing and improving schooling and the qualifica-
tions of young people in many parts of the world (UNESCO, 2012).
Another thing that must not be underestimated is the gap separating
schooling from work. Moreover, we must be cautious not to reduce the vast-
ness of poverty and under-education around the world to a question of edu-
cational credentialism and inflation in the developed countries. What we
must remain is aware that these phenomena have become more widespread
with globalisation.
It is not by chance that Thurow (1996) had already referred to capital-
ism’s Pyrrhic victory: by becoming the world’s only victorious economic sys-
tem it would, from then on, be required to respond to and meet the world`s
most pressing needs and aspirations and find solutions especially for pov-
erty. The same author, shortly before the September 11 attack, discussed
“social volcanoes” that were about to erupt such as religious fundamental-
ism, ethnic separatism, and the contradictions between democracy and the
market. Naturally, structural changes call for structural solutions but these

youth: the right to a place in the sun   29

much-needed solutions still seem to be out of reach because of a lack, among
other things, of clear, viable utopias.
As far as schooling is concerned, history has shown us that the trajectory
of all monopolies is that of a falling star. Even the monopoly that formal
education holds with regard to credentials could hardly be expected to en-
sure, during these unstable times, that everyone would remain in school and
that every student would be successful regardless of the social pressure to
succeed. As with other fields, the school as an institution seems to have at-
tained a certain outreach threshold and, at the same time, a certain fragility
threshold. Being in the firing line, as an institution that serves as both the
stage and target for various forms of violence, schools have become pressure
cookers. Yet many of the proposals for solving its problems have merely put
forth recommendations for more school and more confinement to address
the already existing violence. However, perhaps the strongest prop support-
ing school today, is that they function as a place to leave children and ado-
lescents in a society where there are few such places and where changing
family dynamics, working parents and other societal pressures have created
a context in which fear prevails.
Yet the conclusions of research into what adolescents do out of school
cannot be ignored. Apparently, they manage to set aside time to do their
homework, sometimes even hiding the fact from their parents. They often
join school-sponsored initiatives such as sports and other leisure-time activi-
ties on their own hook. Many take part mass culture activities, especially
those that cater to their particular age group. They learn about and use tech-
nology to foster relationships and forge ties with peer groups and take part
in other activities that Barrère (2011) has compared to the ritual testing of
the ancient Greek Paideia, which was designed to mould the individual’s
character (toward a socially defined “good”).
The author concludes that the pessimism of many educators and society it-
self is short-sighted since, in the activities that the adolescents participating in
her research have selected for themselves, they have met the challenges with
clarity and equilibrium. Her research subjects by and large have sought self-
expressive emancipation, as they educate themselves in spheres that are free
from the school’s institutional discourse which, in our view, often purveys val-
ues that are more preached than actually practiced. The activities the young
people selected also have socialisation effects and tend to converge to some ex-
tent under the umbrella of values taught by the school. It would be risky to over-

30   candido alberto gomes

value such curricula but the results suggest that the monopoly held by schools
today, when educational inflation is at its height, is far from being absolute.
It is worth remembering that at the beginning of the 20th century, Dew-
ey and other progressive philosophers proposed that school-based education
be closer to real life, given the radical changes that had taken place in urban-
industrial society. At the time, the historical-social construct of youth and
adolescence, with their emerging identities and prominent roles was in the
early stages of being delineated and described, albeit in a somewhat hesi-
tant, experimental fashion. Thanks to the historical-social circumstances,
the child-centred progressives proved to be far less successful than the ad-
ministrative progressives (Labaree, 2010).
Social constraints today are no less severe than in those formative years
of educational philosophy. Hopefully now the urgency of the crisis will of-
fer opportunities for us to listen more closely to the voices and input of the
students, thus helping us gain a more accurate understanding of their aspi-
rations – including their need for self-expression. Heightened awareness on
our part could lead to more effective student engagement in school.
It is a given that without the will of the students, which stems from deep
inside each one and is both a factor in and an effect of social dynamics, the
educational/learning process cannot succeed. Coercion may induce students
to enter school and carry on with their studies, but soon after its limitations
will be laid bare.
An alternative may be broad-based replacement of or alternative curri-
cula, enacted outside the school environment, as some curricula already do.
Depending on the flexibility of the school these curricula may eventually
deplete the schools of their students. Putting romantic visions aside, youth
obliges us to look beyond our immediate horizons.
Education outside school walls may reveal the performance, potential
and contradictions of the educational system, warts and all. But in the
meantime, a world with an ageing population that is getting ready to enter
into decline is barring the gates to the cohorts of youth that are attempt-
ing to enter. In the not-too-distant future, however, those in decline will be
dependent on those very same youthful cohorts, since the trend has been
toward increased longevity.
The wave that has broken on the shore is taking too long to draw back,
while the succeeding waves are held in abeyance, creating a long, empty
space between. When the sea holds back, it is usually the sign of an im-

youth: the right to a place in the sun   31

minent Tsunami, so it would be wise to make way for the cohorts of youth
before they open the way for themselves with the sheer force of the genera-
tional bulge. If it is any consolation to people of our age, at the very least,
we will be able to witness and indeed participate in dramatic changes that
promise to alter the course of history.

CONC LUSIONS: MODELLING T H E F U T U R E

In his famous research into how societies decide their own survivals or dis-
appearance, Diamond (2006) analysed how erroneous group decisions were
caused by the rapid forgetting of past experiences, misleading analogies with
former situations, the aloofness of administrators, difficulties in perceiving
slow change, egotism masked as rational behaviour, and the individualism
of powerful groups and other processes. The principles Diamond applies to
the Mayan cities, Easter Island, the state of Montana and Rwanda could
very well be applied to the globalised world we now live in. If we narrow the
focus to decision- makers in education, including classroom educators, then
we can sum up some of the changes and implications as follows:
1. The age group accordion, which opens asymmetrically, alters the com-
position of groups of various ages that are in need of education. On the
verge of a prospective inter-generational gulf, children, adolescents,
young people, adults and old people are not what we have traditional-
ly thought they were. Serres (2012) is right when he states that before
teaching anything at all to anyone, it is essential to at least know who
that ‘anyone’ is. However, we actually know as little about these newly
classified and categorised children, adolescents and young people as we
do about adults and the increasingly older elderly. This means that the
educational sciences are faced with new challenges and that it behoves
us to understand that we are acting in the present in accordance with a
past that has already faded away.
2. In reality, capitalism has achieved a Pyrrhic victory. Exclusion has its
limits and the reactions to centralised accumulation of wealth and
globalised uniformity from time to time become explosive, both on
the streets and in the media. As capitalism’s legitimacy crisis deepens
(Habermas, 1975), how long will cohesion be maintained through coer-
cion? Will the solutions involve the democratic State? Utopias exist, but

32   candido alberto gomes

 are they sufficiently clear? The anti-capitalist rhetoric often found in
educational discourse is often window-dressing. And it is worthwhile to
ask to what extent the words are serving as a smokescreen to hide the
lack of concrete changes that are actually within our educators’ reach.
3. The promises of education have come to resemble deceptive propaganda
as positive returns fall off in the face of costs, and students are increas-
ingly less willing to accept school failure. Violence of, in and against
schools is transforming them into hells on earth in which both educa-
tors and those being educated suffer. What structural changes need to
be made to ensure that we do not keep on spinning the same old wheels?
When will we move away from the details of course contents and how to
manage texting in class and address the more relevant challenges affect-
ing learners? When are curricula going to mirror to real life?
4. Across the board, exclusion has affected developed and undeveloped re-
gions alike and young people call out for the right to a place in the sun,
while society only offers them a social moratorium. While we remain in
this holding pattern, the highways and bridges of education are being de-
constructed and the concept of education itself progressively loses much
of its legitimacy. Faced with a future that we have taken too long to per-
ceive, how can educators maintain Ariadne’s thread, which is essential
to ensuring continuity between civilization’s present and past?
5. The school as an institution is like a granite castle: symmetrical, en-
closed, reinforced and shielded by bureaucratic rules for almost every
situation. These features make it very difficult for schools to respond to
societal turbulence, which has become globalised, heterogeneous, fluid
and flexible. This upheaval has led to an ongoing process involving the
most radical opening up of access to knowledge and the most intense de-
velopment of subjectivity of the last few centuries. Education today not
only has to deal with the intergenerational gulf but also with the diffi-
culties generated by inter-civilizational dialogue. An intra-civilizational
breach has opened up in Western society; on one side of the gap is tech-
nical knowledge and on the other, values, feelings, beliefs, ethics and
morals. It is a situation that makes social and school unrest inevitable.
6. School education in its present form resembles that castle surrounded
by bureaucratic moats and rigid temporal and spatial boundaries. Educa-
tion is centred on important but transient knowledge which, in many
cases, is quickly becoming obsolete. Its pace is slow and often tedious.

youth: the right to a place in the sun   33

 It is based on the unilateral nature of a relationship in which there are
some who “know” and who are charged with teaching those who “don’t
know”. As an institution that supposedly embodies the ideal of moder-
nity (Touraine, 1992), the school emphasises reason and minimises emo-
tion, which is so closely linked to the ability to learn. It concerns itself
mainly with the strictly cognitive aspects of knowledge and far less with
values, attitudes and feelings. Although it is aloof from the times and
societies of today, it is actually a product of historical reconstruction.
Despite being out of synch with the times, transformation will not come
about without great effort, which of course includes the efforts of educa-
tors themselves, who wish to see formal educational systems survive.
7. Conditions, which are in constant flux, appear to call for a less struc-
tured, more informal kind of education, one that is flexible enough
to detect and deal with different age and cultural groups. It should
be a system of education that is untrammelled by time and spa-
tial constraints and wide open to inter and trans-disciplinary meth-
ods of dealing with issues. It should include groups that meld face
to face socialization with modern forms of distance socialisation.
The solutions found would hopefully consign compartmentalised, academ-
ic specialisation to the dustbin of history and revolutionize the rigid model
of teacher – class – subject. The educational system might even become less
bureaucratic owing to the lesser importance conferred on credentials.
8. Revealing the need for change is the easy part. What is hard is to take
the historical steps to transform an institution that has become crystal-
lised into one that is truly dynamic. It is easy to say that we not only
must predict, act, and reform but revolutionise. But it is much harder to
know how to act strategically, especially in light of the resistance that
prevails not only within the institution itself, but primarily outside it:
within society at large. At first glance the task appears urgent and Her-
culean but success will depend largely on the ability of young people to
act in an articulated manner as a generation. If they manage to do so the
new wine may actually remain within and gain character from the old
vessel it is poured into. Will the process be gradual or quick and tumul-
tuous? The tendency of those in power is to give up the ring so as not to
lose the finger but that only happens when there is an historic deadlock.
Should we come to a deadlock, which portions of the judicial-political
heritage will our youth remember and which parts will they forget?

34   candido alberto gomes

9. In spite of all the risk and anxiety, there are some glimmers of hope.
Young people have heeded the call for indignation made by an old intel-
lectual, Stéphane Hessel, who survived the Nazi death camps and today
is one of the world’s outstanding examples of physical and intellectual
longevity. Throughout the course of his life, he has renewed his ideas and
taken it upon himself to sound a warning to today’s young people: that
the worst attitude is that of indifference. Reliving the reasons he joined
the Resistance in the first place, and spotting new enemies in the field,
Hessel (2013) posed a fundamental question. Why, today are the resources
lacking to maintain and prolong the existence of those human rights and
freedoms that were so hard-won in the post-war period when Europe was
in ruins?

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