{"id":6923,"date":"2017-05-08T05:53:56","date_gmt":"2017-05-08T05:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6923"},"modified":"2017-05-08T05:53:56","modified_gmt":"2017-05-08T05:53:56","slug":"the-first-global-citizens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2017\/05\/08\/the-first-global-citizens\/","title":{"rendered":"The first global citizens?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I've been reading the latest report from the Varkey Foundation on what <em><strong>Generation Z<\/strong> <\/em>thinks about life, the universe, Brexit, etc. \u00a0It's <a href=\"https:\/\/www.varkeyfoundation.org\/sites\/default\/files\/Global%20Young%20People%20Report%20%28digital%29%20NEW%20%281%29.pdf\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Some of it is concerning:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>only 17%\u00a0of young people report good overall physical wellbeing<\/li>\n<li>in 16 out of 20\u00a0countries, more young\u00a0people believe the world is becoming a worse place\u00a0to live than believe it is becoming a better place to live<\/li>\n<li>only 89%\u00a0of\u00a0young people believe men and women should be treated equally<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And some seems reassuring:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>68% of young\u00a0people across\u00a0the world say\u00a0they\u2019re happy<\/li>\n<li>84% of young people say that technical advancements make them hopeful for\u00a0the future<\/li>\n<li>only 42% of\u00a0young people say that religious faith is an important part of their\u00a0lives with 39% claiming that religion is of no significance to them at all<\/li>\n<li>at least 89%\u00a0of\u00a0young people believe men and women should be treated equally<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Introduction to the report, by\u00a0Vikas Pota the Chief Executive of the Varkey Foundation, ends like this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><strong>The future of global citizenship<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The conclusion of this survey is therefore cause for cautious optimism. The ingredients are there for global progress. \u00a0It shows that young people everywhere largely agree on the threats and the opportunities the world faces, and are impatient for Governments to solve problems. \u00a0Most already have close friends from other religions. \u00a0The clearest division evident is between the optimism of the developing world and the pessimism of the developed world. \u00a0And despite the political turn inwards in many developed countries, young people everywhere place great faith in both technological advance and increased communication \u2013 which they hope will promote greater cooperation between peoples over the longer term.<\/p>\n<p>Though many negative assumptions are often made about Generation Z\u00a0\u2013 the first generation of \u2018digital natives\u2019 \u2013 this survey suggests, with hard evidence, that such assumptions are unfounded. \u00a0The generation now coming of age was born at a time when technology was shrinking the world. \u00a0They are more likely to travel, to migrate across borders, and to forge friendships in other countries than any previous generation. \u00a0They could become the first truly global generation for whom divisions across countries, cultures and faiths are not important. \u00a0In this darkening political landscape, where international institutions are under greater pressure than at any time since the end of the Second World War, it is reassuring to know that, in the minds of young people, global citizenship is not dead: it could just be getting started.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Whilst I acknowledge that there are some problems that only governments can address, I do hope that today's youth also thinks that it has a role in working together and with others to solve problems, and to prevent them. \u00a0It can't be all down to government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I've been reading the latest report from the Varkey Foundation on what Generation Z thinks about life, the universe, Brexit, etc. \u00a0It's here. Some of it is concerning: only 17%\u00a0of young people report good overall physical wellbeing in 16 out...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-new-publications"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}