Introductory notes for readers of this thesis - Theses - Flinders ...

In the worldview of contemporary Australian youth—reflective of the broader culture—Hughes notes that young people understand the process of forming aphilosophical/spiritual perspective on life as an individual task 78 . This individuation ofspiritual meaning and life philosophy is a part of the broader cultural hyper-individualismthat sociologists focusing on young people identify as one of the main burdens andchallenges in the general construction of the social identity of modern young people 79 .The self and social understanding of young people in contemporary Australian society isthat they must explore for themselves their SQ: the values, ideologies and philosophies ofmeaning by which they make their choices and which guide their behaviours. There is nolonger an agreed spiritual/religious public knowledge base from which young people candraw, and thus they are left to sift through the predominant cultural premises of secularconsumerism 80 and mitigating alternatives. Young people are not necessarily resistant tothe views of religions, particularly those espoused by family and friends; they see these aspotential resources that may or may not be personally appropriated according to ‘fit andsize’.In light of the above, and listening deeply to young people’s stories of what has andhasn’t helped them grow towards a spiritual relationship in their life domains, Hughes 81notes the following:• young people are most open to learning about spirituality and beliefs in thecontext of conversation and relationship, involving peer interaction as wellas mentoring input;• young people want to personally test the validity of a particular idea orpractice experientially before being willing to incorporate such withintheir own structures of meaning;78 See ibid, 126–30.79 See for example, Eckersley, ‘Never better – or getting worse? The health and wellbeing of youngAustralians’; R. White & J. Wyn, Youth and society- exploring the social dynamics of youth experience, 2 ndEdition (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2008); J. Wyn, ‘The changing context of Australian youthand its implications for social inclusion’, Youth Studies Australia, 28 (1) (2009), 46-50.80 See Reasons for living, 129–70, for an extended discussion of the place of the secular market in effectingyoung people’s sense of identity and meaning.81 It’s difficult to pin point exact page references for these thematic conclusions, elements of which arespread through the text though pages 75–88 and 136–61 are particularly reflective of these views.212