Precariousness: from a social condition to a state of mind

An interactive event including film screening, workshops and panel debate.

“Precarity” is a general term to describe how large parts of the population are being subjected to flexible exploitation or flexploitation (low pay, high blackmailability, intermittent income), and existential precariousness (high risk of social exclusion because of low incomes, welfare cuts, high cost of living). This phenomenon affect young generations above all. What kind of society is going to rise on such a psychological, social and economical ground?

Agenda

2:00 PM – Presentation of day activities and launch of a video documentary on youth precarity in Europe:
This activity will be organised in collaboration with Giulio Rubino’s project on “precariousness” among young people and will be organised around the screening of his new film (currently being shot in Brixton village, London).

3:00 PM – Precarity on the ground:
Young people from several European country will talk about their national situation concerning economical and social conditions among new generation.

3:45 PM – Workshops with:
Radical Future, to help the participants learn what unmet needs their peers are facing and how they would like help to tackle them
Social Spaces, to enable participants to learn from groups who are helping support (from uncovering to resourcing) people to use their skills and assets to help tackle unmet needs in a creative way
Visual Camp, to help train people to visualise scenarios for young people’s futures with support by designers and policy makers
During the event we will conduct interviews with participants on the condition of precarity and ambitious initiatives as ways of coping in the current economic climate.
5:00 PM – Public debate with Guy Standing, Susan Nash, Letizia Gambini, Viola Caon and Shiv Malik

The EU is renown as the institution that makes the most important effort to improve mobility of youth in Europe, through programmes like Erasmus for students or Leonardo for interns. However, in the recent years the labour market has evolved with a multiplication of unpaid jobs and a tight compression of the supply of standard and long-term contracts. The most evident consequence is that young professional are nowadays experiencing an increasingly dangerous alienation from the productive life in our society. How can the EU play a role in developing a system where young human resources can be employed and contribute toward the expansion of our continents’ wealth?