Our World

Society has a downer on young people today. Young people are said to have no sense of solidarity and to not care about the environment, not to mention being impatient and unhealthy. They are narcissistic and think the world revolves around them.
If this is true, then surely it is the logical consequence of growing up in a society that is dominated by prejudice, narrow-mindedness, a lust for status and possessions, opposition, competition and the struggle for power? If you grow up in a world in which narcissism and greed are rewarded, war is okay and crime unpunished, in which leaders lack vision, immigrants and ethnic minorities have to turn a profit for the host nation, and out-of-touch politicians are only interested in outdoing each other, surely you would come to think that this is how things are supposed to be?
Luckily, reality is different. Young people are fed up with all this selfishness. They understand what older generations apparently do not - that economic and ecological problems clearly show that we are not separate from each other, or the world. Through their familiarity with digital media, the younger generation is developing a sense of connectedness that is barely addressed in present-day society - a desire, aptitude, awareness of and talent for creating combined extra value.
Together, the new competences that are inherent to today's generation of young people are laying the groundwork for a connective society that will shake up accepted culture. The result will be an enormous shift in power and completely new ways of relating.
In Our World, author André Platteel explores what it means to be a young person today. He takes us into the world of 'youth culture' - and discovers it's not one culture at all, but many. And far more hopeful than most commentators would have us believe.
His insights stem from the time he spent with young people as part of 'Your World', the name given to Rotterdam's year as European Youth Capital, in 2009. Your World combined projects, workshops and events with experiments in new coaching methods based on mutual connectedness.
In Our World, Platteel recounts these experiences and describes the coming changes and possible consequences. Based on the yet-to-be-realised connective society, he formulates strategies to develop a culture in which everybody feels heard and recognised.