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Why have we established a Centre for Global Youth at UCL?

By UCL Global Youth, on 4 May 2017

Posted by Avril Keating, Director of the Centre for Global Youth

It is estimated that there are currently 1.8 billion young people around the world – the largest generation of young people in human history. This generation is growing up amidst the rapid acceleration of globalisation, and are becoming adults at a time when education, markets, technologies, and social demographics are changing rapidly.

Young people have been at the forefront of these changes and have borne the brunt of many of the challenges it has posed. In some countries, youth unemployment is three times the rate of that for adults, and the Global Youth Wellbeing Index found that 85% of young people are experiencing below average levels of wellbeing (whether it be in the realm of health, safety and security, civic participation or economic opportunity). What is more, the consequences of some of these longer-term shifts have been further exacerbated by global austerity, and more recently, the resurgence of populism and political uncertainty (ranging from the Arab Spring to the Brexit referendum).

Uncertainty and change raise a host of questions for everyone, but the core aim of this Centre is to place young people at the heart of our research and to examine how young people are responding to the challenges and opportunities that are emerging from greater global integration. For example, what are young people’s perceptions of and attitudes towards these changes? Has global integration altered their sense of agency? And what actions are young people taking in response to these changes?

At UCL, we have a vibrant community of researchers that are helping to address these questions. Drawing on a range of disciplines and a variety of research methods, we are conducting research on the different domains of young lives, including:

At the same time, we also look at youth in diverse settings: from highly developed economies in the Global North, to conflict and post-conflict contexts; and from elite educational sites to areas of high deprivation. By bringing these diverse disciplines and perspectives together, the Centre activities are also enabling us to address a further key question: what are the commonalities, differences and inequalities in experiences of growing up in a global world?

One forum through which we hope to address these questions is this blog. Here, we will feature the latest news from our projects, summaries of our publications, and news about our events and activities. To find out more, subscribe to the blog or follow us on Twitter (@UCLGlobalYouth). We also invite you to contribute a blog post; if you are interested, email us at globalyouth@ucl.ac.uk 

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