Changing lifestyles and values of young people

Helena Helve
University of Tampere

The paper will be multi-disciplinary taking a comparative approach to the empirical studies of
values and life-styles of young people. It will discuss recent European youth research as reflected in
the findings of two Finnish research projects about social and identity capital and changing lifestyles
and values of young people in Finland. The aim is to relate the results of these research projects to
local, European and global youth research and policy perspectives.

The paper will consider in particular: (a) global changes and the range of institutional and other
factors (such as education, social relationships, the media etc.) that mediate the values and lifestyles of
young people; (b) the transition to adulthood including the role of personal agency, structural factors
including gender age , socio-economic status and cultural factors; (c) polarization of young people.