The Urban Generation
The youngest generation was typically living in urban circumstances. Its values and attitudes were not formed in the same way as those of the preceding generations. Thoughts and attitudes were read, learned, and reflected upon; they were no longer inherited or transferred as such.
This generation had access to many sources of information and views. For the first time, a generation was itself able to construct its own worldview independently; it was not emulating anyone or setting itself up against previous generations. Unlike members of the preceding generations, these young people were somewhat adrift in the societies of Finland and Canada. A young Canadian woman with a Finnish background reflected on her future in the city:I was born here. My grandparents came here in the 1950s and the whole family lives here now. This is a nice and peaceful small town with great opportunities for all kinds of activities, but I would like to see something else. My big dream is to move to some big city, Toronto or Montreal. My aim is to get a good job and have a big family.
(F1990s, Thunder Bay, Canada)
The problem is that this generation is not able to exploit inherited values and practices as such. When the world is changing so quickly, it is difficult to fit the practices that were earlier so functional into everyday life and to make important decisions about the future in terms of school, work, family, housing, and place of residence. A young Finnish woman considered her job and compared it to those of others. At last, she speculated on her own future:
| Interviewer: | Have you been unemployed? |
| Informant: | No I haven’t, at least not so far. |
| Interviewer: | Is your contract a temporary type? |
| Informant: | I have a permanent job. Of course, the amount of work depends on the project. So I have had a permanent job all my working life. So I have been lucky. |
| Interviewer: | That is true, you have been lucky. That is not common. |
| Informant: | But you never know what the future holds. (F1974, Fi) |
A similar kind of an uncertain future is visible in the next excerpt, where a thirty-two-year-old Finnish man describes his life at the time when he left home:
| Interviewer: | How old were you at the time? |
| Informant: | Seventeen. |
| Interviewer: | And what happened next? |
| Informant: | So, I went around until I was recruited into the army. I finished it then. I had worked already before my army service. Since then, I’ve carried on working and rushing around. It has been very chaotic all right. (M1972, Fi) |
When the members of the youngest generation were discussing the values of the good life, they were understandably not able to exploit long-term life experiences. Their reasoning focused more on the future. In that speculation, the interviewee’s future home, family, and work were discussed. Experiences from the childhood home were, naturally, used as a measure. The values of safety, family, friends, and relationships were paramount for this man born in Finland:
| Interviewer: | How was your time in the army? How did you find it? |
| Informant: | That was just the last kindergarten … I just had great fun there, I have said to everyone, it was great, especially for such people who can manage the boys’ internal territorial behaviour. And it also depends on one’s own luck, what kind of friends you make there. (M1972, Fi) |
Most fundamentally, this generation seems to live with a mindset of uncertainty. The world has always looked like an open field of possibilities to young people, but now the situation is different. If the parents of this generation believed in the model of a welfare state and its shared values, young people are looking for something else, something new (see also Häkkinen and Salasuo 2016). Is this new something more individual, more international, more religious, or more immaterial? This is a crucial question for the future. This transnational and international change is a challenge in both Finland and Canada, just like everywhere else in the world.