Young people today feel a need to reclaim control over their identities, spaces, and futures. They see opportunities for global competition but also face diminishing employment and constraints on exploring public spaces. As a result, three narratives are emerging: reclaiming a sense of self and place in society through millennial culture, reclaiming control over one's body and mind through well-being, and reclaiming the right to occupy public spaces through urban culture beyond city limits.

1. cultural landscape inspiration
24.04.14

2. FORMATIVE
FORCES

3. 3
A BOXED-IN GENERATION
A global ‘failure to launch’ – staying at home into
adulthood at record levels
Diminishing employment opportunities
Urban planning increasingly an exercise by
adults, for adults

4. Teens want access to publics to see and be
seen, to socialize, and to feel as if they have
the freedoms to explore a world beyond the
heavily constrained one shaped by parents
and school.
Just as society formerly wrote women out of
civic life, we now prohibit teenagers from
many aspects of public life about.”
danah boyd. author ‘It’s Complicated: the Social Lives of Networked Teens
“

5. 5
COMPETITION TO STAND OUT
Global competition is a given
Seeing kids becoming millionaires overnight
Pressure on uniqueness, stand-out skills & onus
on self-reliance in order to thrive

6. 6
FROM FOLLOWING TO SIDE-
STEPPING
A de-centralization of trust
People turn sideways: side-stepping
Impacting on education (Funding4 Learning),
finance (bitcoin, Zopa), political action (Chinese
Flesh Eating Search Engines), restaurants
(Mealku)…

7. We want to be producers, co-producers,
consumers and evangelists all at the same
time, but current organisational structures
don’t allow us to do that.
Alan Moore, author, No Straight Lines: Making Sense of our Non-linear World
“

8. AN EMERGENT EMOTIONAL DRIVER
RECLAIMING
Young people have been dis-possessed of
control of their futures, failed by institutions
and sold to by corporations who want to own
youth for themselves. They feel a mix of fear
and excitement in the knowledge that re-
claiming their identities, spaces and futures for
themselves is the only option left.

9. 9
MILLENIAL CUTURE…
RE-CLAIMING A SENSE OF
SELF & A PLACE IN SOCIETY
WELLBEING…
RE-CLAIMING CONTROL
OVER BODIES AND MINDS
“THE ENLIGHTENED SELF” “HEALTHY HIGH”
URBAN CULTURE…
RE-CLAIMING THE RIGHT TO
OCCUPY PUBLIC SPACES
“BEYOND CITY LIMITS”
3 N A R R AT I V E S O F
‘ R E C L A I M I N G ’

10. THE
ENLIGHTENE
D SELF

11. We want to be producers, co-producers,
consumers and evangelists all at the same
time, but current organisational structures
don’t allow us to do that.
Alan Moore, author, No Straight Lines: Making Sense of our Non-linear World
“

12. 12
OBSESSIONS //
GOING DEEP MATTERS
An age of cultural omnivorousness
DIY, craft, code, re-(insert verb) the new
language
Creating and curating projects to make a mark
on the world
Custom Frame Cycle Building, Walpole (USA)

13. 13
PLASTIC TO RAW //
GETTING BEHIND THE SCENES
Popular culture has become plasticized,
sanitized and over produced
Longing for experiences that feel unmediated,
unprocessed
Drawn to the local, craft, unpolished and informal
Parkour Practice, Gaza (PL)
Millennials have been over sold to, they
have looked behind the curtain and
seen how it has been packaged and
sold on, they no longer believe in it.
Josh Madden, Editor, Nylon Magazine

14. 14
“
Nightclubs are too forced. Most DJs sit around
like lumps, unengaged with their audience
Decentralized Dance Party
“

15. 15
EXPLORATION //
PUSHING YOUR BOUNDARIES
Stretching comfort zones despite an assault on
indulgences
Living without pressure of long-term
commitments pushing tastes, self-knowledge,
potential, sensation
Thinking more about self and your place in
society
Extreme Urban Exploring, Moscow (RUS)

16. NEW ROLES
FOR
BRANDS

17. A CHANGING RELATIONSHIP TO BRANDS…
xxxx

18. 18
“
#1
DON’T JUST SELL
TO PEOPLE,
ENLIST THEM IN
YOUR PURPOSE

19. 19
#2
LET PEOPLE SEE
BENEATH THE
SURFACE

20. 20
#3
GIVE PEOPLE
SKILLS

21. 21
#4
GIVE PEOPLE A
MARKETPLACE

22. 22
#5
HELP PEOPLE
COLLABORATE
AND BUILD
COMMUNITIES