DISKUS Vol. 5 (1999)
http://www.uni-marburg.de/fb11/religionswissenschaft/journal/diskus


MULTICULTURALISM AND VALUES OF YOUNG PEOPLE

Helena Helve
Department of Comparative Religion
University of Helsinki, Finland

Email: Helena.Helve@Helsinki.Fi


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Abstract
After raising the question of what 'multiculturalism' means in general usage and in religious studies and youth research, the article argues that among some of the younger generation a new ecological biocentric perspective has emerged which challenges, for example, anthropocentrism. Focusing on research in Finland, the article analyses the significance of shifts in generational and gender values and uses a typology to differentiate young people's attitudes along a spectrum ranging from groups such as humanist-egalitarians and environmentalist-greens to racists. 

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Introduction

'Multiculturalism' seems to be among the concepts or slogans which has been generated by academics, politicians and the media. What makes the issue of multiculturalism difficult to discuss is that there are two distinct concepts of multiculturalism which are generally being used indiscriminately. The first concept assumes that multiculturalism stems from a learning process. According to this way of thinking, multiculturalism is a part of the culture of a society or social group.<1> The second concept is based on the idea of multiculturalism as something which involves a global sense of place, a translocal culture and a distinctive mixture of both wider and more local social relations and networks. 

 In the first interpretation of multiculturalism, the culture is recognised to include learned patterns of behaviour, traditions, ways of thinking and acting, attitudes, values and morals. In Nordic countries such as Finland the debate about multiculturalism has been raised by multicultural education (see e.g. Suurpaa 1998). This demonstrates a concern among parents and educators about the ethnocentric and racist beliefs and attitudes of young people . 

 In this article I interpret 'multiculturalism' in the framework of the empirical data of attitudes and values of young people who live in a society which can be seen as culturally homogenous.<2> 




Some questions about multiculturalism 


What is multiculturalism in the framework of religious studies and youth research? I think that it is multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary; a dialogue among different fields of science. It is associated with the process of the culturalization of people's everyday life in the interdisciplinary framework of linguistic discourses and textual writings, within academic disciplines such as the history of religions, the sociology, anthropology and psychology of religion, and cultural and media studies.

What is multiculturalism in young people's everyday lives? Is it cultural differences with equal rights as citizens (cf. Helve 1998, 211 - 221; 1997b, 228 - 233)? Is it pluralism in values and ethical issues and neutrality in the public sphere? It should in these cases mean the rule of treating all people equally. Is it freedom of speech, thought, religion and association? It should mean here that no one should be manipulated to accept the cultural values of the majority. 

Is every aspect of cultural diversity worthy of respect? Do we tolerate and respect equally racism and anti-Semitism, or 'fox girls'<3>, skinheads, gays, lesbians, 'New Age' religions, etc.? Is there some moral vocabulary in tolerating and respecting differences?

We can think about the question by imagining two pictures of multicultural young people. First, imagine a picture of children from different cultural and also religious backgrounds standing together; this is an ideal view of educational multiculturalism, reflecting solidarity and tolerance - we hope that these children will be future cosmopolitans. In the second picture is a cosmopolitan of today - a young skinhead with the hair style which comes from England, the personal stereo from Japan, jeans and boots from the USA, music from Afro-Caribbean culture and the thoughts maybe from an Austrian Adolf. He seems to be very multicultural. Should we respect his individualized identity and the values of nationalism and racism (see Gutmann 1994, 21-22)? 

The attitudes and values of young people are in many cases contradictory and unanalytical. The same person can consider equality a good thing in a certain context, while expressing very racist opinions in another. My studies have shown that most young people's attitudes and values are not anchored in any political, religious or other ideology. They feel free to change their views according to the situation.<4>

It seems that young people today live in a reflexive modernity where they have to be flexible and adaptable (see Beck 1992, Giddens 1994 and Fornas 1995). Does this mean that we accept the post-modern thesis about the death of great narratives like humanism, socialism, communism or Christianity (Fornas 1995, 214; Lyotard 1984, 1985)? What is coming instead of those ideologies? I have studied the world views of the young generation and the change in them and I think that there is an ideological - maybe even a religious - base in the new ecological biocentric perspective which challenges e.g. anthropocentrism. There are young people who respect equally other life forms like animals, plants and ecosystems. In their view animals and plants even have the same moral rights as people.
 

Generational and gender value shifts

The Dutch researchers Henk Vinken and Peter Ester have presented the hypothesis that the more modern a country and society is as a whole, the more progressive are the values which have spread among its people. Conversely, the less difference there is between the values of different generations, the less developed the country is in comparison with these modern societies (Vinken and Ester 1992; see also Appiah 1994, 156-158). On the other hand, in modern societies there has been a change in adult roles that maybe makes the older generation more similar to the younger ones, and thus diminishes generation gaps. This may therefore sometimes be the result of cultural modernization rather than an indication that it has not occurred (Fornas 1995, 247). 

I think that animal rights activism can be classified as a sort of modern value system. Considering the differences in values between generations in advanced western countries brings up another interesting question of gender: are girls more interested in animal rights (cf. the name 'fox girls') than boys? In my own research it has become apparent that girls are more willing than boys to compromise their standard of living in order to reduce pollution and environmental problems (Helve 1997a, 154-155). 

European value studies (e.g. Friesl et al. 1993; Vinken and Ester 1992; Young Europeans 1993; Young People in the European Communities 1991) have also shown how young people's environmental awareness throughout Europe has increased and interest in ecological issues has grown. At the same time there has been an increase in gender equality within the younger generation. The fences protecting gender roles are coming down. Young people are more diversified than before in their goals in life and more willing to approve of alternative lifestyles. Comparative longitudinal studies (see Helve 1993b) indicate that there is widespread distrust of societal institutions, such as political parties.

The collective belief of young people during the sixties and seventies that together they could bring about a better world could still be seen in Finland in the peace marches of the early eighties, but these had faded by the middle of that decade. In place of this meta-narrative came a progressively growing concern with individual peace of mind and small scale micro-narratives (Helve 1993a and 1993b).<5>


Multicultural value-systems of young Finns.

According to my findings, it was possible to divide young people into different groups with regard to their values.<6>  'Humanist - Egalitarians' stressed gender equality, e.g. in working life. They were willing for a woman to be their boss and in their opinion it is equally important for a woman to go to work as for a man. Men and women both need to earn money and take care of the home and the family. In their opinion there should be more women bosses in important jobs and it is very important to live according to one's conscience. They would not mind if their children went to a school where half of the children were of another 'race'. 

The most 'traditionalist - conservative' values were found among secondary school boys and most urban girls were against such values. These values were very conservative, such as 'Couples who have children should not divorce', 'Marriage is for life' and 'Young people today don't respect traditional values enough'. They supported the opinion that 'Our country needs strong leaders who can restore order and discipline and respect for values'. Rural young people valued family values more than urban young people. With respect to gender differences, girls valued humanism and equality more than boys, who valued technology and economic welfare more. 

The 'Environmentalist - Greens' stressed green values and were mostly female upper-secondary school students. In their opinion, the development of economic welfare should not be taken any further. Nuclear energy should be given up, even if this would result in a decrease in the standard of living. They believed that the continued raising of economic wellbeing only increases mental illness and that science and technology are beginning to control people instead of serving them. They were willing to lower their standard of living in order to decrease pollution and environmental problems. They also believed that 'Even young people can promote world peace by participating in peace work'. 

'Political cynicism' was seen in statements such as 'Citizens' opinions don't have much influence on the decisions made in society' and 'The political parties have become estranged from ordinary people and their problems'. 

A new group of values was global (cf. 'Generation Global', Watson 1997). 'Internationational globalists' thought that if more foreign people came to Finland these contacts would be mutually beneficial. In their opinion it was not a privilege to be a Finnish and 'East, West home is best' was an obsolete phrase. 

In the variance analysis, significant differences in the values of boys and girls were found. Girls more than boys valued environmental issues, secondary school urban girls most of all. Boys (including most secondary school urban boys) valued technology and science more than girls. Vocational school urban girls were the most politically passive and critical of politics. The most active in politics were secondary school urban girls. Girls were more concerned about the environment. Business school students mostly valued technology and economic welfare, whereas secondary school students were most critical about them. Green values were given as an alternative to technological and economic values. On the other end of the spectrum from International globalists were 'Racists', who were more often boys, the majority of them studying in vocational or business schools and colleges. The most humanistic values were found among secondary school girls. (Cf. Brown 1996.) 


Discussion: postmaterialist values and multiculturalism

Inglehart's comparative value study described contemporary changes using the categorical designations of 'materialist' and 'postmaterialist' values (Inglehart 1977, 27-28; 1990; 1997). Inglehart presented a hypothesis of scarcity, according to which people generally consider whatever resources are scarce to be important, and people's basic needs and values thus reflect the socio-economic situation of society (Inglehart 1977, 1990, 1997). He claims that the postmodern period is connected with the postmaterialist value world, which criticises the modern and materialist value world. My results indicate that postmaterialist values are to be found among Finnish young people as well. They are found especially among humanists supporting gender and racial equality and among international cosmopolitans. These young people support cultural differences with equal rights as citizens. The greens also expressed postmaterialist ideas in their criticism of the raising of the material standard of living and in being willing to lower their standard of living in order to eliminate nuclear power. 

However, people's multiple needs, attitudes and values form a more conflictual value world than Inglehart's typology suggests. One person may have very different needs, attitudes and values, a portion of which are materialist and a portion of which are postmaterialist. For example, my study of Finnish young people's value systems indicates a decline in postmaterialist values among young people during the recent period of economic recession. Although a proportion of young people can be described as humanist multiculturalists (see Helve 1993b), among them attitudes to poor people and foreigners became sharper as the result of the recession, just as they did among the individualists. Economic scarcity can thus be seen in the increase in materialistic values and xenophobia. Young people, however, do value things other than material goods. Most young people are tolerant and ready to compromise their own standard of living, among other things, in order to protect the environment and help those less fortunate (Helve 1997a).

According to Inglehart, those who are postmaterialists in their value world are more ready to give economic help to poor countries and are also more concerned about women's rights (Inglehart 1977, 30). Young people's values are generally postmaterialistic and multicultural (Inglehart 1977; 1990, 76). Recent research, however, has indicated that traditional attitudes of nationalism and racism are still widespread in modern societies (Inglehart 1990, 3; Vinken and Ester 1992, 411). Not all the new national political movements within Europe - with such diverse concerns as environmental issues, peace or human and animal rights, fighting poverty or promoting equal rights for developing countries or between genders - can be considered expressions of postmaterialist values and multiculturalism. 

It seems to me that we really need two distinct interpretations of multiculturalism (see Introduction, above) in order to understand the different value-worlds of young people in contemporary modern societies. Young people learn cultural values in their own society but they also adopt different values from global (youth) cultures, the media or the internet. In a modern 'monocultural ' homogenous society (such as Finland is) young people are free to change their national monocultural values to international multicultural values according to situation.

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References

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Notes

<1> Compare this thinking with a notion that goes back to nineteenth-century romanticism and which has been elaborated in twentieth-century anthropology, in particular cultural relativism with a notion of cultures as a whole (Pieterse 1995, 61).

<2> For instance 90 percent of all Finnish children are christened in the Evangelic-Lutheran church, and 92 percent attend confirmation classes at the age of 15. 

<3> The 'fox girls' are a small band of young, predominantly female, animal rights activists in Finland who have attacked Finnish fur farms, and who, in the course of the legal proceedings after their being caught have become minor celebrities in this country. 

<4> My paper is based upon empirical longitudinal studies of world views (Helve 1993a) and attitudes and values of young Finns (Helve 1993b, 1995, 1996). Over the last years I have led the project, Values, World views and Gender, financed by the Academy of Finland. In the project we have also examined trends in the values of young people in Finland and elsewhere in Europe. The data were collected in 1995 among 457 16-19 year old young people living in Helsinki and Ostrobothnia who went to upper secondary schools, vocational institutions and business colleges. The research methods included interviews, questionnaires, projective tests and attitude measures. 

<5> See, e.g., Bourdieu 1987; Fraser and Nicholson 1991, 373-394. Lyotard (1985) theoretically categorizes as postmodern those contemporary western countries in which meta-narratives no longer legitimize issues. Some examples of these sorts of narratives, which directed the value worlds of previous generations, were the development of rationalism and liberalism by the philosophy of the Enlightenment, and the Marxist theory of class conflict culminating in revolution. With the help of these narratives various facts, policies and ideologies qualified as true and legitimate paradigms, according to which actions could also be judged to be right (see also van Dijk 1998).

<6> In the analysis of the data I used 31 variables, considering issues of politics, environment, science and technology, economics, nationalism, gender equality, human rights, participation, work and family values. 

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