Building of values in the emancipation process of young people

Abstract

This article carries out a reflection on the relationship between young people’s values and living conditions, paying special attention to the current processes of their emancipation. The precarious experience for many young people within the labour market has brought about a change in the way traditionally conceived by young people, as a period of transition leading towards adulthood. Nowadays the youthful period is longer and it is re-valued as well: it is no longer conceived of as a mere transition towards the very ‘challenges’ of adults, such as the achievement of a stable job and the formation of a family, etc. Rather it is lived as a desirable phase in itself, with its own values and characteristics. Living for the present, maintaining oneself, feeling free and continuously reinventing oneself, are some of the values which articulate many youths’ identities today. It is worth highlighting that these are functional and adaptive values, with the precarious nature of the emancipation processes of young people at present. At the same time, these values help to normalise and sustain the same experience of emancipative precariousness. Furthermore, these values which define youth at present, hide the difficulty of overcoming, whenever they like, the experience of being young