Youth
in the Fragmented Society |
| Recently in Japan, the crimes caused by youth have been highlighted in the newspapers. Their lack of enough experience with human and nature contact might be one of the reasons for their violence. In the town planning system, places for youth to meet have not been given enough consideration. Commercial spots, such as amusement centers, game centers, convenient stores, etc. have become the places for youth to be. Semiotic theory analyzing commercial society might be fit mostly to youth activities in cities, as the example of cognitive maps of youth shows. There are many temptations in amusement centers that involve youth with drugs, sexual commercialism and violence. Furthermore, information technology has changed the style of communication between youth as we have seen recently with the shocking news in which a 12-year-old girl killed her friend at school, because of a disagreement in an Internet chat room. On the other hand, data from several international comparative studies about youth consciousness show the pessimistic Japanese youth consciousness concerning social matters and hope for the future. The nexus of youth participation in community planning is very important for re-structuring the relationship between youth and community. Youth have the ability to analyze community issues and make plans for problem solving. Youth leadership might contribute to community capacity building. Even though there are still large criticisms regarding children and youth participation, such as “even adults had not taken part in the community, not to speak of children and youth,” some cases show the potential for youth and children to involve adults in their action research programs in their community and encourage their participation in community development. |