Neal Gorenflo:

“Share or Die, Youth in Recession Call for Submissions: http://www.shareable.net/blog/share-or-die-youth-in-recession-call-for-submissions

Contemporary American 20-somethings face a disorienting set of conditions.

While only a few years ago pundits worried about the “me” generation, children raised in material abundance and cultural vacuity, even college-educated young people have come to face to face with hardship:

– 85 percent of graduates move home with their parents (Twentysomething Inc.)

– Official unemployment – a notoriously underestimating measure of a population’s immiseration hovers around 15 percent for young Americans, one-third higher than the overall population’s rate. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

– Self-employment, which is almost always precarious, shot up 27 percent between 1995 and 2005. With employers hiring fewer and fewer new employees, long-term secure employment is unrealistic for many young people. (BLS)

– Youth has become such a material hardships that, for the first time ever, today’s college graduates face the same level of unemployment as the general population. (BLS)

Just when young Americans seem to need advice the most, the older generation is least able to provide it. Having lived through post-World War II prosperity, most middle-aged parents have never experienced a job market this bad. For this generation of young adults – “Y” or “millennial” or what have you – the future is hazy and the present isn’t much clearer.

At the same time, America’s young adults are well-educated and resourceful. They have spear-headed the rise of online communications technology, and lines of commonality that seemed impossible to draw a generation ago are only a click away. For all the drawbacks of social media (and it certainly has its share), it is a powerful force and a resource an otherwise poor generation can largely call its own. The current crisis presents a series of opportunities to break with what’s broken and build communities that are more self-reliant, sustainable, and democratic. We’re in the midst of a forced redefinition of our values, where “the good life” will be more about relationships and experiences than possessions and titles.

A confluence of economic and social factors have composed a generation we do not understand – thus the now-iconic NY Times Magazine headline “What Is It About 20-Somethings?” Traditional forms of social organization (at the workplace, young nuclear families) are on the decline, while new forms develop in their wake. This shift presents a host of hardships, but an equal number of possibilities for young people to change the world we have been given.

Its with all this in mind that we begin the Share Or Die project. Over the next few months, I will be collecting and editing an eBook about youth in recession for Shareable, and I need your help. Just as no one person experiences as a generation, no one person could write this collection. Rather than keep to the circle of established professional writers (a category that includes few young people), we decided to present an open call to our readers and their wider communities.

Here’s what we’re looking for:

* Stories from the front lines:

What is it like to try and get by in America as a young person these days? What is it like to try and do more? We’re not looking for simple stories of triumph or catastrophe, but productive struggle. There may not be easy solutions, but there are tactics and strategies, and we want to hear yours. These can be advice from experience (e.g. “What not to do as a freelancer”) or stories without an easy lesson.

* DIY How-to’s:

If we can’t afford to buy stuff, we’re going to have to do a lot more making, repairing, and sharing. Share Or Die is supposed to be a useful guide for young people, so this section is going to be the core of the collection. These are practical tutorials, but they can be as material as building a backyard herb garden or as immaterial as starting a band. We’re concerned with the big stuff here: housing, transportation, food, relationships, non-traditional forms of work, travel, that kind of thing.

* Analysis:

Young people get our lives explained to us by a lot of publications, now it’s our turn. How are we to understand our generational situation, and how can we use our common resources to improve it? We’re looking for ideas outside the traditional government-non-profit axis and beyond any partisan program. Possible topics include: youth and technology, common space, sharing and property, the contemporary workplace.

* Art:

Although it’s a prose-centric project, Share Or Die would be incomplete without art. We’re hoping to include some cartoons, graphic art, and illustrations that address the above themes. We’ll look at graphics with or without pieces of writing, but combined is probably best. If you’re an artist or graphic designer interested in working on the project but without any particular idea, send some samples of your work anyway and we’ll see what we can think up. Cool (and relevant) data visualizations are especially welcome.

We’ll be accepting pitches and completed pieces (1,000-3,000 words) during the month of January. Writers and artists from traditionally underrepresented communities are particularly encouraged to submit. Although youth is a perspective rather than a number, we’re predominantly trying to showcase writers in their twenties; old people with lots of great ideas about how young people should live are discouraged from submitting. We’ll be paying for selected pieces at average non-profit publication rates – not mind-blowing, but we know even writers and designers need to eat every once in a while. For legal reasons, we can’t accept already published material unless it was published under an open license (e.g. Creative Commons). Send questions as well as submissions and pitches, along with links to a sample or two and your online presence in any and all public forms you choose (Twitter, blog, tumblr, etc.) to [email protected].”