The emerging ‘New Economy‘ and ‘Beyond Growth‘ movement challenges the traditional economic paradigm that focuses on growth as a primary objective, advocating instead for priorities including social justice, sustainability, and long-term stability.
As major stakeholders in the sustainability transition, economic transformation, and intergenerational justice, young people must be meaningfully included in and engaged with the shaping of new economic priorities.
This report, based on interviews with civil society and youth organisations across Europe, seeks to understand the political and organisational conditions shaping the New Economy movement, highlight the barriers preventing young people engaging with it meaningfully, and make key recommendations to promote the inclusion of young people in the economic transformation that will define their future, as well as the cost of inaction on this front.
Key recommendations include:
- Making youth participation structural, not symbolic;
- Invest in capacity and literacy for systemic change;
- Secure long-term and flexible funding;
- Build intersectional and value-based coalitions;
- Strengthen European platforms for youth collaboration.
