The Baltic edge : reflections on youth, work and innovation in the Baltic sea region

Young Europeans have trouble completing their transition towards full independence. Our current social model is based on the status of full-time, long-term employment, which unlocks important social and economic rights and when access is denied to these rights, tensions are created. High rates of youth unemployment, NEETs, youth indebtedness and social unrest are signs of these tensions. Many interlinked issues of education, employment, housing, personal wellbeing and political empowerment or lack thereof,all have a part to play in leading to this precariousness. As a result, many feel paralyzed by insecurity, angry about the lack of recognition of their capacities, and frustrated by the insufficient institutional support. Here is the paradox: young people are being asked to shoulder more of the weight of sustaining existing welfare states, under pressure from the demographic shift, migration and ageing populations, yet at the same time they experience increasing difficulties in getting a foothold of their own in society, a solid foundation on which to build a future. To some of the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea the challenges are even more urgent, with large shares of the often most able young population leaving the country to find a better life abroad.Young people will be a scarce resource in Europe in the future.This presents major challenges to the future of our societies. At the same time, we risk seeing the engine of the global economy being situated elsewhere. Europe will have to compete with other regions of the world that, with increasing quality of education, will have access to a very large, educated, young population. The aim of this book is to broaden the reflection on the issues of work, civic participation and social inclusion for the new generation. A group of academic and citizen experts, covering different subjects such as labour market, entrepreneurship, education, democracy and civic participation have contributed with their different views. A substantional part of the content is the result of an online discussion initiated by the Brussels-based community Edgeryders. The book is part of the Swedish think tank Global Challenge's mission to promote policy learning on European social transformation in times of globalisation.