Social pedagogy in young people’s everyday life: specific problems and alternatives for the future in a globalized world

Abstract

This article focuses the discussion on the challenges that Social Pedagogy must assume in order to increase young people's civic engagement in the globalized world in which we live, putting an emphasis on their everyday reality. Taking into consideration that being young in a network society can have multiple meanings, five key transitions are analysed with the aim of making a socio-pedagogic (re)interpretation of the youth condition: from object of attention to subject of social action; from the approach to the needs to the recognition of abilities; from education to work as fundamental rights; from family dependency to civic chore; from individual actors to social network builders. Within this framework, suggestions are proposed to generate new pedagogical and social opportunities for young people, who are fully involved -in their capacity as free and responsible citizens- in the creation of a more sustainable, fair and equitable world.