Youths´ voices about the future in northern part of Norway

Abstract

Youths´ choice of education and residence will affect development our part of the country. The article offers insight into how some young people from Troms are looking at the future in the north. On one hand, a statistical description of North Norway's future perspectives from SSB, the media and even researchers, can be perceived as a negative threat – also for the youth. The demographic prediction for the region described is gloomy. This may result in a negative prediction, almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. On the other hand, young people grow up in a part of the country with positive future opportunities;

Tourism is increasing, northern Norway is experiencing faster economic growth than the rest of the country, and many new jobs are making the scene.

There are many features in community development that make places important, and make new perspectives and theories of place evolve. Increased mobility in the world, more attention to the flow of people, products and ideas, and more intense globalization processes, also affect societal phenomena in new ways in the north. Many young people in Troms move for education. Hence, they may live in several places and experience belonging to more than one place. The concepts of multi-site affiliation and site polygamy open up for other ways of understanding interaction between different places with which to be associated. It is an interesting finding that a large proportion of young people from Troms want to study abroad. Glocal citizens with multiple and parallel identities allow for new ways to understand and recreate places.

«The region of opportunity» is used by many to depict the northern part of the country. At this intersection, youth is challenged, both through electronic survey, workshop and interviews.