Challenges and Life Orientations of Youth. The Context of Transition Countries
Challenges and Life Orientations of Youth. The Context of Transition Countries

Summary/Abstract: This paper focuses on the life orientations of youth living in postcommunist countries. Although a large part of them function today withinthe same global organism, their political past still differs them from the othercountries, defining in a special way all the socialization space the youth grow upin. The analyses undertaken in this paper try to argue that this is not only theproblem of the political heritage, but much more complicated interaction betweentransformation and globalization processes, that can be described in terms of glocalspace, where nothing is the same, starting with socialization process, through lifeopportunities, and ending with political significance of youth. Empirical basis arehere existing data collected in an international project covered Poland, EasternGermany, Latvia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, China and Vietnam. Theanalyses show life orientations of youth – representatives of the first generation,who have grown up intellectually within the new system – as an important drivingforce of changes, on the one hand, and equally serious source of social and politicaltensions, on the other, possible especially where the “aspiration gap” (the distancebetween what young people aspire to and what they can achieve) is large andconcerns considerable part of youth.

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