Lifestyles of young professionals

When describing their lifestyles today and in the years to come, the respondents describe a much faster, more high-tech, and less controlled life compared to their grandparents. Yet, traditional family values are prominent in their vision of life ten years ahead, along with a wish for an interesting job and a larger/better apartment or house. Values of sustainability also appear quite frequently in their descriptions of housing as well as in social-, societal-, and global relations, whereas the job descriptions lack connections to sustainability issues.

5.1. The slow and simple life of grandparents in comparison to contemporary lifestyle

Respondents picture their elders to have lived closer to their surroundings, family and neighbours, and leading a less stressful and simpler life. On the negative side their life was characterized by hard work, rigid social rules (gender roles, housewife system), poverty, less material wealth, rigid social stratification, war time experiences, and bad health. Elements linked to sustainability are closeness to nature, less energy use, less material consumption, locally produced goods, no pollution, and more homemade possessions and products.

Modern technology, education, spare time, travels, less rigid social stratification (gender roles, social mobility), “individualization” and material wealth are stressed as characteristics of contemporary lifestyles. Respondents locate themselves as “global”, i.e. IT and travelling connects people (implicitly awareness of others increase). Explicit remarks made on sustainability are more cars, pollution, electronic devices, material consumption, and higher levels of energy and resource use. The respondents feel contemporary everyday life is more stressful; complex social relations and stressful work situations affect work, family life and leisure time. As one of the respondents in our sample commented:

I’m stressed about future work situation, it’s gonna be hard to get a work. I’ve been depressed last year feeling lonely, and stressed about the school situation and that have been affecting my partner and I in a bad way, But the worst part is over… I hope. (Female, 24-29)

As a result, as traditional community values lose their grip, social contacts become central, but at the same time more complicated and uncontrollable (cf.

Bråkenhielm 2005). Modern industrial and technological production and consumption seem relevant for respondents’ attitude towards today’s energy and resource use. During the 1950s and 1960s Sweden worked hard to become the most modern nation in the world. During these decades there was an unprecedented growth of the standard of living, including a relatively affluent working class. There were new scales of consumption and leisure, as present in the respondents’ answers, and shorter working hours, more pay, and a rapid migration from the countryside to urban centres as national industry was relocated. Blueprints for the welfare state were put into practice (Löfgren 2000).

5.2. Swedish young adults care for traditional family values and interesting jobs Most respondents envision their future along three overlapping social dimensions:

1) interesting job (well paid, interesting work tasks). 2) Family (with or without children). 3) Bigger apartment or house owners (suburban, countryside, outside larger city). Preferences for more spare time and socializing could mean more time for travels, activities with impact on levels of sustainability. Three aspects stand out related to worst case scenarios: 1) social isolation 2) being homeless, followed by bad housing and too small, 3) being unemployed (not afford a place to live, food etc.).

Interestingly, many respondents envision their future in ways similar to traditions of self-ownership as house-owners and the nuclear family as an ideal way of living, which is nicely illustrated by the following quote:

A house with a big garden, together with my partner, our future children, [and] his mother. Working 80% not too far away from home, doing something I really enjoy, and be healthy and in balance. (Female, 24 – 29)

This is a sharp contrast to their current way of living. Several respondents mention living close to family, friends, nice neighbours and well paid and/or interesting job as part of their ideal way of living. Several cultural, historical and political aspects are worth bearing in mind considered these preferences. Given that two-thirds of the respondents live in small- or medium-size towns and that our sample mainly contains students we have to consider Swedish history of family politics and cultural norms of family tradition. Social scientist Lucas Forsberg has researched Swedish middle-class parents (2009), possibly comparable to our sample, and claims that the ideal of the “dual earner/dual carer family” follows the family politics proposed by the Social Democratic government since the late 1960s, when this ideal was made the norm in Swedish legislation and policy. Given that respondents’ answers resonate with this norm and that they are either close to or at the average age for becoming parents this was expected. Recently, this cultural norm has been manifested as the ideal of middle-class parents and families (Forsberg 2009). Holding a university degree, as a large portion of our sample either do or are on their way to obtain, acclaim them as feasible holders of such an ideal. Also, ethnologist Annette Rosengren (1991) has pointed out that given the large portion of Swedes living in small or medium-sized towns (also present in our sample), family norms and gender roles have historical roots in traditional agricultural society where men and women were supposed to complement each other.

5.3. Expressions on sustainability in everyday life: private and global concerns

Swedish respondents mention aspects explicitly related to sustainability, and among these are preferences for owning electric cars, eco-fuelled cars, more public transport, and less emission. Also, suggestions like people going together and “car pool” are mentioned as hypothetical changes in future mobility. Answers suggest there is an underestimated political energy given respondents’ talk about their feelings about the good of public transport, e.g:

I dislike that the public transport e.g. the bus is so expensive, it’s almost cheaper to go by car and then you can go whenever you want. The public transport isn’t planned together with other transports like train and boat departures and arrivals;

it's always long waiting hours. (Female, 18 – 23)

Good environment, environmentally friendly house, “simpler life”, and

“collective living” are mentioned as future ideals connected to sustainability.

”passive house”, gender equality, social equity, health, peace, a “global we”, war, global problems, capitalism as risk factor, pollution, crime, health (private and general), poverty, no democracy, modern life as threat to the environment, over-population, and corporate control are preferences with resonances of sustain-ability in broader terms. None of the respondents mentioned “environmental”,

“sustainability” or something equivalent in their job descriptions. Another indication of the relatively high importance of the sustainability issue for the respondents is their ranking of global problems². Fighting environmental degradation was ranked second, after reducing poverty.

Considering the sense of global reflexivity (poverty, war, pollution) in combination with private concerns about family, friends and respondents’ own sense of insecurity, unemployment, health and so on, some culture scientists have characterized Sweden as a society with a wide ”moral universe” (Shalom 2007).

One aspect of this ”universalism” comes to the fore while considering ”equality thinking”, and an environmental consciousness as expressed by respondents in our sample. According to ethnologist Tom O’Dell (1997) Swedish culture is constituted by a deep concern for the Environment. Also, in an international survey conducted in 1985 young people aged 18-24 were asked what they were

2 The problems to rank were: 1) Reduce or eradicate poverty, the gap between rich and poor, 2) Combat crime, prevent conflicts, 3) Fight environmental degradation and pollution (e.g.

climate change), 4) Improve economic conditions (e.g. employment), 5) Improve and develop social services (education, health), 6) Spread democracy and freedom, 7) Fight against inequalities between men and women.

most proud of in their countries, and unlike for example their American or Japanese counterparts who emphasized their national heritage, young people in Sweden put nature on the top of the list followed by “the welfare state” (cf.

discussion in Löfgren 1999).

6. Perceived behaviours and attitudes towards