Youths, the seeds of democracy in South America

What roles do young people have in the changes taking place in South America? Do South American Youths share a common identity? In an effort to answer these and other questions, the Brazilian Institute for Social and Economic Analysis (IBASE) and the Institute for Studies, Training and Consulting in Social Policies (Pólis) along with institutes from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay have carried out the survey “Youth and Integration in South America social profiles and youth organizations.”

The study, backed by the Canada’s International Development Research Centre – IDRC, isolated the six most important demands among South American Youths. First and foremost, South American youths want quality education, with an emphasis in job training and decent job opportunities. Other hot issues have to do with culture, security, ecology and transportation.

 “Regardless of their specific demands, youth movements need greater visibility, recognition and participation. Society, most especially governments, must be capable of giving them their due recognition and providing the necessary venues for them to participate in dialogue so they can influence public policies that affect their lives,” said anthropologist Regina Novaes (photo) thematic consultant.

According to the study, youths make up between 20% and 25% of the general population, and this ratio is expected to hold to 2015. The research goes further, questioning prejudices concerning youths and the notion that they are no longer championing ideals: “Why not consider as utopias these unique conflations of immediate demands and more general topics that expressed through the ideals of human rights and ecology?” asks Novaes.

Shared Indicators

The team, composed of approximately 50 researchers, interviewed close to 800 youths who live in different places around the continent, from shantytowns at the Bolivian plateau to the Brazilian sertão, it includes Argentinean human rights activists, Paraguayan campesinos, Chilean students and Uruguayan political militants, among others.

In face of such varied backgrounds, the anthropologist stated that those processes that affect youths most deeply are shared across the entire continent: “Despite their different life experiences, youths are asking for an education that is more closely related to the job universe, one that is in keeping with their times, this includes culture and environment. Despite differences, there is always a common profile that sets them apart as a generation.”

Novaes also mentions the fact that South American youths now have greater access to information and communication technologies, and its important impact on how they organize, record activities, disseminate their demands and mobilize their peers.

Take, for example, the Uruguayan youth movement for legalizing marijuana that has  connected via internet to similar movementsaround the world. The Bolivian hip hop movement has likewise struck a chord with the  hip hop movement Brazil, both dealing with ethnic issues. In Bolivia it is associated to the rights of native peoples, and in Brazil with those of African ascent. “Thus, both movements reflect the history of a particular nation, in different ways, while sharing a common background.”

As to differences, Novaes points to the sharp social disparities among the nations studied: “In Chile, for example, all children have access to elementary schooling. Brazil would be about half way on this respect, while at the other extreme we have Bolivia with internal migration problems and its various ethnicities.”

Regional variety

The study has also brought to light new ways of framing issues that had not yet been looked at closely, and highlighted the strength of the youth struggle that had not yet been fully apprehended by the population.

 “The goal of the study was to gather subsidies to create public policies addressing youths in the Mercosul, which has since 2006, been entrusted specifically with creating policies for this segment,” explains Novaes.

The governments of the nations studied have also come up with recommendations in the field of youth policy. “We hope to generate an impact, to influence the debate on public policies for youths, and to open new possibilities of interaction and bringing issues into the limelight, as well as to make progress in youth rights,” said Novaes.

Translated by Lis Horta Moriconi

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Read Further: (In Portuguese)

Íntegra do estudo “Juventude e Integração na Sul-Amerinca – caracterização de situações tipo e organizações juvenis”

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