The generation that chases no
rainbows
Adele
Horin
September 30, 2006
YOUNG people are materialistic, optimistic
and "untroubled by ideas". They aim for a car, job, house, and kids. They
confuse globalisation with global warming, and show little interest in matters
outside their own material welfare. Even the university students are neither
"intellectuals nor contemplative".
But the results of fascinating research on the
generation aged 15 to 24 show Australia's young understand the future of work is
mobility, adaptability and change. They think a job for life is a form of
imprisonment. They believe that in the best country in the world, they will make
their modest dreams come true.
John Howard's children appear to have absorbed the
Prime Minister's conservative values, the report shows, even though they say
they do not much like him. They believe Aborigines get too many favours, and
people from the Middle East should be like "us".
The only political issue on their radar is
industrial relations.
continued at
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/the-generation-that-chases-no-rainbows/2006/09/29/1159337342844.html
*
Y bother? This generation inhabits a
different world
Denis
Muller
October 3,
2006
DON'T be too hard on generation Y. Conventional,
measured and uninterested in bold ideas? Yes, but who made them? A conservative
and materialistic society, where the Prime Minister's stated ambition is to make
people "relaxed and comfortable".
Yet although they are the product of John Howard's
Australia, that does not mean that gen Y are Howard's children. A good number
neither like nor trust the man.
continued at
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/y-bother-this-generation-inhabits-a-different-world/2006/10/02/1159641262606.html
***
Fearless and Flexible: Gen Y talks about their
generation
Almost without realising it Generation Y have
adjusted fully to the globalised world. In
that way they are dramatically different from their parents, and represent a
point of change in Australian social and
economic history.
This is the conclusion prominent
pollsters and social researchers, Irving Saulwick and Dennis Muller, have reached in their latest
report, Fearless and Flexible: Views of
Gen Y. Talking to young people directly in this way throws new light
on the extensive commentary and statistics
that percolate around Gen Y.
In an intriguing paradox, these Gen Yers
have apparently come to terms with
globalisation while barely registering its presence.
As Saulwick and Muller put it:
Big-picture issues that affect employment, specifically globalisation, are not on their radar … Perhaps
liberated by a broad disinterest in these
matters and emboldened by having never known anything other than sustained economic growth, they hold few fears for the
future.
The young people revealed in Fearless
and Flexible are in sync with the times.
They display a pragmatism born out of prosperity; little awareness of
issues outside their immediate orbit; an
acceptance of the status quo. Their values are conventional and their ambitions modest. For many of these
young people their dreams-come-true are
about family, home, and the car.
They see a multicultural Australia in
which the key is for immigrants to fit in and
conform to our ways. They’ve grown up in prosperous times and don’t fear
an economic downturn if for no other
reason than it is beyond their ken.
The report, commissioned by the
Dusseldorp Skills Forum (DSF), summarises focus
group research among Gen Y in July
2006.
Dr John Spierings, DSF’s Research
Strategist, says: of course, the young people we’ve spoken with don’t speak for all young people.
We all know idealistic young people who
are extremely conscious of the bigger world around them and whose ambitions soar. Even among those we did meet with
opinions and attitudes varied. But for all
that, we couldn’t help but be struck by the strength of these dominant themes and their emergence in every group
whether city or country, school aged,
tertiary educated or in the workforce.
Copies of Fearless and Flexible: Views of Gen Y
are available at http://www.dsf.org.au/fearless.html
Fearless and Flexi
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