Proceedings of the 15th International Academic Conference, Rome

YOUTH IDENTITY, LIFESTYLE AND ECONOMIC

GATIS OZOLIŅŠ

Abstract:

This report is based on sixty in-depth interviews that took place starting the end of 2012 till the beginning of 2013 in two major towns in Latvia – Riga and Daugavpils – within MYPLACE (Memory, Youth, Political Legacy And Civic Engagement) project with young people aged from 16 to 25. Three significant aspects of contemporary youth identity searching are studied in the project. Firstly, the understanding of contemporary Latvian youth about politics, political process and its impact on the society as well as opinion about political system and culture in Europe and Latvia are analysed. Secondly, particular attention is paid to history and memory concepts within everyday life; the importance of the identification of historical events in the growth of youth identity. Thirdly, the relation between political issues and the everyday life is closely connected to the process of the development of young people as individuals, their leisure activities, and system of values. In the highlight of the project is the impact of economic processes (for example, the economic recession) on: the youth way of living; youth views about the system of education, its quality and importance in career development; their family members, relatives, friends, schoolmates, teachers, etc. life quality; the economic situation in Latvia; unemployment, emigration, mistrust towards the political parties and the government as well as the importance of the economical processes in the growth of their identity. This paper emphasizes the youth understanding of political and economic processes, its influence on their everyday life, the way of living, the view about the future career and well-being, their involvement in internet activism (Have you ever been involved in internet activism?), their shopping habits (Does politics/economics ever influence what you buy?), the terms of film, book, music choice (Do you like films, books or music that have an obvious political message?) and in what way the different processes construct their identities.

Keywords: Youth, Lifstyle, Identity, Political and economic processes

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2015.015.141

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