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International
Workshop on
Childhood, Adolescence and
Youth:
Social Integration
and
Sustainable Development
With
the aim of
generating a
vision of the
desired
future for children, adolescents
and youth
in the country, as well as
outlining proposals
to guide
possible measures to achieve this,
and considering the
contribution that social studies
on the subject can make,
the 5th
International
Workshop on
Childhood, Adolescence and
Youth:
Social Integration
and Sustainable Development,
began this Tuesday, October
29,
in
the Hotel
Riviera, Havana.
 María
Isabel
Domínguez, coordinator of the
Youth Study Group,
explained that this is a moment in
time when societies are
torn between the demands of
an aging population
and those of a new generation
seeking
its place in complex and
uncertain situation.
She
added
that both those
countries which today
have
large groups of youth in
their population structure
(the so-called
demographic dividend) as
well as those whose
children and
youths
demand special attention
due to their reducing
number,
introduce particularities
in terms of
intergenerational relationships,
and face
challenges in regards to
the roles youth play in
social, political and
cultural spheres.
Luis
Suarez
Gomez MS, of the Center for
Studies on Youth,
gave a talk on Cuban
policy toward
this sector of the population,
and stated that
the challenges faced are
many, but
that social and
public policy should be
developed to link the needs
of each
age group, taking an
intergenerational approach.
"Youth
should
not be seen as
a fixed stage
of life,
but as a process that marks
the life cycle of each
person," he said.
From
another perspective, the professor of the
Universidad de Oriente,
Larissa Beatriz
Turtós
Carbonell, referred to
intergenerational conflicts, specifically in
the case of
the young and the old, and
explained that both the
elderly
and young people feel
the need to understand the other
generation, with the aim
being the development of
both stages of life
through
social participation and
the links between them.
"These
are the two most
stigmatized
or marginalized
stages of life
from the
social point of view, with
the least participation permitted
in decision-making.
While
programs of assistance and intervention are devoted
to these age groups,
participation is still lacking,"
the
specialist noted.
Epistemological and
methodological approaches to
the study
of childhood, adolescence
and youth;
youth
diversity and cultural,
socio-structural, political
and economical dimensions;
the subjectivity
of this sector of the population;
public policies for
children, adolescents
and youths
(educational, work
and communicational);
socialization processes;
among other areas, are
some of the
topics for discussion at the
workshop which culminates on Friday, October
31.
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