The missing future: Colombian youth

The exhaustion of the modernization rood el, the acute crisis affecting the family and the shortcomings of political and educational institutions place Colombian young people in a state of isolation characterized, in the author’s view, by few opportunities of political participation, a future of unemployment or underemployment, poor-quality education which inspires no enthusiasm and guarantees neither employment or social mobility, and a society without a clear model of a future with a place in it for young people. Young people are also faced with a chaos of values generated not only by the very rapid succession of three social situations (rural society, modern society and model-less society) but also by the emergence of forms of organization connected with that succession, such as the black economy, the economic organization of drug-traffiking or dependence on drugs, corruption in the world of finance and administration, and the consumerist visions offered by the mass communication media.