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Shaping Our Existence: Individual Agency or Social Determinism?
Socioeconomic Influences on Youth Development in the Balkans: Bridging Aspirations and Realities
by Luise Meerheim
In the journey from youth to adulthood, individuals encounter the pervasive belief that “You can achieve anything if you just really want to.” While seemingly empowering, a closer examination reveals a need for critical analysis, considering the intricate interplay between individual aspirations and societal structures.
The Illusion of Independence
Youth marks a phase of breaking free from parental dependence, making independent life decisions, and delving into education, careers, and societal involvement. However, the prevailing notion of individual achievement neglects the impact of social structures, creating a potentially misleading image of a world focused solely on the individual.
Unveiling Social Disparities: Insights from the Balkans¹
A 2018 study commissioned by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation surveyed 10,000 young people across ten different Balkan states (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria Croatia, Kosovo, North- Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia und Slovenia) to find out to what extent their wishes and experiences for and about life are related to the social and societal structures in which they grew up. The equally sobering and sad result was that: “Social inequalities permeate all aspects of young people’s lives and yield differences in the extent to which young people have access to higher levels of education, engage in different self-development activities, partake in politics or volunteerijng activities or access employment".
Education: A Link to Social Mobility.
The study highlights a strong correlation between parental education levels and a youth’s likelihood of enrolling in university. For young people from a parental home with a university degree it is from 26 times in Macedonia to more than 100 times more likely in Bulgaria, Croatia, and Romania to enrol in university than for peers whose parents have just a primary school diploma. This emphasizes that educational success in Balkan states remains closely tied to one’s social background, which is concerning as education can be understood as a core mechanism for social mobility and a lack of educational justice therefore as one of the main reasons for the reproduction of social inequalities and exclusion.
Employment Prospects: The Weight of Socioeconomic Status.
As the study was able to establish, economic and cultural capital not only shape the access to, and the quality of, education, but also significantly determine the professional success and employment opportunities of young individuals. It is striking that young people from financially and educationally disadvantaged homes are significantly more likely to be affected by unemployment, which indicates unequal opportunities in the labour market, leading to social disparities. These findings have serious consequences as it has been found that unemployed young people are also showing less interest in civic and political participation and have little trust in political institutions. Such correlation leads to the loss of potential for a large group of people who are hindered from forming and participating in their society solely due to their backgrounds.
Values and Morals: A Reflection of Socioeconomic Background.
Although we usually assume that we can form our opinions, values and morals by ourselves, statistics reveal a correlation between life perspectives and socioeconomic origins. The youth in more economically secure countries display greater openness to inclusive societies, while those in less secure conditions exhibit lower tolerance for lifestyles deviant from the norm. In fact, the statistics show that youngsters of Montenegro, Albania, Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina expressed much less tolerance about homosexuality or abortion than about bribery or tax fraud. Even if that seems to be shocking at the first glance, scientists found out that it is reasoned by the fact that in less economically secure conditions, so-called ‘survival values’ tend to prevail which include low tolerance for other lifestyles.² The insecure economic situation also leads the Balkan Youth to strongly wish for a stronger welfare-state which is actually mirrored in their voting behaviour as they tend to sympathize with the two political extremes that demand an expansion of social responsibilities from the government.
Political Engagement: Resources and Participation.
Young people in the Balkans show a comparatively low level of interest and knowledge in politics, which goes hand in hand with a strikingly low level of political participation. For example, in Albania, 61 percent of those questioned state they are not interested in national politics at all. The surveys underscore that both political and civic engagement appear to be dependent on access to various resources: for example, participation in elections, various forms of issue-specific interest, engagement in parties and voluntary work correlate very strongly with a higher socio-economic status and the level of education and/or education of the parents.
Beyond Individualism: Recognizing Collective Influence
The results collectively underscore that the development of self and existence is significantly determined by social and economic backgrounds, as well as the broader socio-political context of one’s country.
The life-realities for young people in the not yet consolidated and new Balkan democracies particularly show that not only education and employment, but also our fundamental values and convictions, as well as the extent of our civic and political engagement, are dependent on the structures in which we grew up. Our educational opportunities, the prospect of professional success, even our personal morals and values remain a question of our social class up to this day. It is obvious that this should not remain the case and that urgent action is needed. In order to enable ourselves to shape our existence and be the architects of our lives, states and governments must shoulder the responsibility of dismantling barriers to equal opportunities.
Until then, the words of youth researcher Andy Furlong will probably remain true: “Youth, which should be the time of opportunity, or flux and transformation, is all too often about assuming roles that are in keeping with their social and economic origins.”.
¹ Lavrič, Smiljka Tomanović und Mirna Jusić, in Youth Studies Southeast Europe 2018/2019
² Ronald Inglehart, Christian Welzel, in Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005
