RURALIZATION Project. The opening of rural areas to renew rural generations, jobs and farms. D4.3 Inventory of futures dreams by the youth:technical report.

Abstract

<p>This report is a documentation for an extensive futures dreams inventory which was carried<br>out by the RURALIZATION team. A diverse set of 20 regions in 10 countries was selected to be<br>the study areas. A sample of young people (18–30 years) living in these areas was invited to<br>describe the personal dream future in about 15 years (year 2035). The dream futures<br>consisted of the livelihood recipe (how do you earn your living?), the accommodation recipe<br>(where do you live?) and the lifestyle recipe (how do you live?) as well as the obstacles for<br>realising the dream. The inventories were carried out in national languages and they followed<br>a shared format.<br>The inventories resulted in 2,208 responses. The responses were analysed per type of the<br>dream area, which made it possible to compare profiles of the dream areas. At the highest<br>feasible level of abstraction, the dreams targeted to the city centres could be featured as the<br>dreams of rather young people and people who dream about mobile, eventful, international,<br>creative, successful city life and the balancing effect of regularity. The dreams targeted to the<br>city areas outside the centre were featured by communal, cozy and stable life in the urban<br>fabric, which allowed mobility, internationality and personal development in diverse ways.<br>The dreams destined to the suburbs in the city areas tended to be characterised by a flexible,<br>responsible as well as peaceful and home-centric ‘basic’ form of living at the outskirts of a city.<br>The dream futures targeted to the rural areas close to cities were profiled by a clear preference<br>for the countryside as a living environment which included waters, animals, private space and<br>a garden – dream of a family life in which work life was a subordinate of the rural lifestyle.<br>Futures dreams targeted to the rural villages were manifestations of the local paradigm in a<br>rural fabric. Finally, the futures dreams targeted to the remote rural areas were flavoured by<br>the ideal of living in the nature and with the nature – and having agency to do this.<br>The futures dreams were studied also from the perspective of the professional status.<br>Regarding these results, the dreams of becoming a farm entrepreneur were dreams of very<br>entrepreneurial ‘seniors among the juniors’ who dreamed about farming and living in the<br>green with the animals, vehicles and community members. The dreams of becoming a nonfarm entrepreneur were featured by a flexible, self-determined life where creativity and<br>nature-based recreation were balancing the work duties; the personal capacity was a specific<br>challenge. The dreams of being not employed as an entrepreneur(but rather a salaried worker)<br>were essentially manifesting various forms of ordinary life with work and leisure added with<br>a social and developmental orientation.<br>In the next steps of the RURALIZATION project the findings of the dream inventory will be<br>assessed in various interactive engagements which are targeted to findings ways to make the<br>dreams come true in various contexts.<br></p>