Jobs, or income and meaning? - Help us discover new ways of making a living in Armenia!

Youth statistics for Armenia paint a dire portrait of how the 18-35 years old are experiencing paid work .A staggering 52% don’t have a job and two thirds of them have never had a job. 35% youth are volunteering, the official numbers say…But are we seeing the whole picture? As we have learned from our collective experience in this community over the past two years, perspective is everything. it’s not like young people need to hear more about the challenges they face on the labour market…they live them every single day! So we are taking a different approach. 

Temporary, local…or a bigger shift at hand?

By far, young Armenians aren’t the only ones coping with deeply flawed mechanisms of connecting our choice of education with who we will become professionally. Throughout Europe we are seeing people with high level of qualifications who seem to be unable to find work according to their expectations, and many have no choice but settle for temporary and underpaid contracts outside their domain of interest. Others are taking up internships, most often unpaid, in the hope that these will land them a paid job. But are jobs really the way forward for all of us? Or the only way to lead meaningful and fulfilled adult lives?

Asking different questions, finding different solutions…

A group of us sat down one day and realized we don’t even need a proper income, as long as we have a roof on top of our heads and food, doing what we love. So we launched the unMonastery – a subsidized hackers’ space where innovators from all over work with a local community to solve challenges on-site. It happens now in Matera, South Italy!

Another daring example is that of Rhiannon, who got fed up with being part of a so called “generation without a future” and created a platform to support co-operatives set up by graduates who are navigating transition to work, all while de-constructing what “young and successful” means nowadays.

So we pick a place.JPG

What are YOU trying to achieve? 

We think initiatives such as these that Edgeryders create are not the exception, rather they are becoming more and more spread in the face of generalized precarity, and so we’re onto spotting similar change makers in Armenia and showcase the amazing things that you are building.

To participate in this discussion simply create a post and tell us about your experiences.

You will be amazed to discover you’re not alone, and your peers across the world are facing similar challenges! By sharing your story you’re making a first step to connect with a community of support. We are seeing already how giving each other advice makes us stronger and much faster at fixing the Big problems our societies are faced with. If you don’t know where to start, simply pick one of the questions below and try to answer it in detail. Looking forward to read you!

How are you and your peers making a living? Where do you search for opportunities? 

  • (1) How do I pay rent? (2) Who am I in the eyes of others? (3) What do I get out of bed for? Try answering all these 3 questions briefly. Do you notice anything?
  • Do you have friends or family members who are working abroad (perhaps you are in this situation)? What have you found useful when taking life into your own hands, while being abroad among people different from your own? !

You know the situation on the ground where you are better than us.

Post a personal introduction and a story* telling us about your experiences here: https://edgeryders.eu/futurespotting-making-a-living

*A small number of selected stories will be published and paid for.

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Offering a solution - besides talking about existing issues ?!

This sounds like a big change! Indeed! When there are too many issues people at times get used to complaining about everything and at the end there is simply no more energy / time / motivation left to do anything else. And who gets affected by this situation the most - is the youth. There are different kinds of statistics around, but one of the main statistics for me is the general mood of people which pups up immediately when there is an occasion. And this mood says: we are not happy with the reality we have. What can be done? Who knows? Maybe really let’s get together and ask all the possible questions to each other and ourselves and try to find out answers together? Let’s maybe rethink our thinking styles, approaches to issues, perceptions of life and what it offers? We, only we can change our reality. And “we” means really a lot to me!

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Do as I say or do as I do?

Guys how about you start with sharing a story about an interesting project…and the people behind it? Wrtite something. Then post it in the discussion group to inspire others,

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Act for change!

New and innovative way to raise the existing problems and find solutions globally. More people, more thoughts, more ideas, more points of views. The key question here which should we focuse on is “What are we trying to achieve?”: more money? better future? desireble job? … Many young people are forced to do the work they don’t want to do, even with low price of money… what are the reasons? what are the solutions?

Sharing ideas connecting virtualy will make easier the progress which will lead as to  the future WE WANT!

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Solutions and Doocracy

I reckon we are seeing the emergence into meatspace of trends, modes of production, and modes of organization that we previously only saw online in digital mode. The phyle, the transnational worker cooperative that operates on a rhizomatic structure with OS 'downloadable fundations for starting resilient systems by which to make means and cause effects to further this emergent method is , in my opinion, the way to go. 

My experiences have shown me that starting simple is the way to go, the coop I work with starts with food…we all eat, and so starting here makes sense…same applies to energy usage, and the need for education and improvement of community services. 

Keep the accounts coming. I’m patching through to a biogas expert in Cairo to connect you all with that community there… The gasifier OS project shows what can be done here. And Thomas Henry Culinane , as disruptive innovator of 2014 (some magazine elected him) is a good man to talk to in this respect. Ping me, amd teach me how pinging works here I have no idea! :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like