European Teenage Consumers in a Globalized World Erasmus Project

Project Title

European Teenage Consumers in a Globalized World

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

Multimedia, social networking and advertising are said to exert a great influence on teenagers and to shape their identity formation, lifestyle and commodity consumption. Living in a period of considerable economic and social changes, high unemployment rates and incisive globalized marketing has transformed our way of living, social stability and traditional values. Consequently, young people often feel disoriented because of that. Some of them find it difficult to establish meaningful relationships and escape into a passive consumption of media and goods. Others encounter difficulties that result in low academic performance, chronic truancy and early school-leaving. In consideration of the above, we considered primal to help our students gain a better awareness of the socioeconomic reality they are living in and to enable them to cope with the challenges of their teenage years.

The project objectives aimed at sensitizing our students to the influence of consumerism on their culture, social interactions, and self-image, and at raising awareness of the environmental and socioeconomic impact of their consumption choices. Other specific aims were:
– to empower our students’ core and transversal skills;
– to help them understand the importance of education, training, and life-long learning in order to boost their employability;
– to take a stand on important global issues such as environmental sustainability, green energies, and ethical consumption, and the unfair practices of sweatshops and child labour;
– to understand the subtle strategies of marketing and the information on food labels;
– to learn how to protect their health, internet safety and consumer rights;
– to comprehend the impact of ICT on our brains and cognitive skills;
– to get a better insight into their typical patterns of behaviour, emotional eating and shopaholism;
– to appreciate cultural diversity, social inclusion, intergenerational and social solidarity;
– to meet successful professionals who will share their real-life experiences, inspire and motivate them.

The four partner schools that took part in the project were: “BKO” from Olpe (Germany), a vocational school of economics, domestic sciences and technology, TSŠ-SMSI from Rovinj-Rovigno (Croatia), a grammar and vocational school offering courses in economics, hospitality and tourism management, and physiotherapy, Liceo «Sofonisba Anguissola» from Cremona (Italy), an upper secondary school offering courses in human science, socio-economics and biomedical scientific field, and “Valkommaskolan” from Malmberget (Sweden), an upper secondary school specialising in economics, natural sciences and technology. The teachers involved were teachers of English, economics, geography, science, and ICT.

During the two-year project, the participants carried out exhaustive research on the following topics: the impact of digital technology and the Internet on teenagers’ consumer behaviour, social relations, and cognitive skills; the influence of fashion brands on teenage self-esteem and identity formation; healthy, sustainable and global fast food, emotional eating and the diet-related diseases; environmental sustainability, waste, recycling and upcycling practices; ethical consumption and fair trade; sweatshops and child labour as the new forms of slavery; greenwashing and the hidden strategies of marketing and advertising; global intercultural education and promoting an active global citizenship and a culture of peace. The students took part in four transnational project meetings (one in Italy, two in Germany and one in Croatia) and to LTT activities in Sweden where they further explored the topics, met regional authorities and many successful entrepreneurs and experts, visited important institutions and companies, attended lectures and worked synergically in workshops.

The students involved in the project greatly appreciated their learning experience, as proved by their positive final comments. Working together they gained a deep insight into the influence of consumerism on their identity formation and lifestyles. They became aware of the hidden strategies of marketing and the pervasive exploitation of labour by powerful multinationals in the Third World. Hence, they understood the need to support social justice, human rights, and democratic citizenship both on national and global level. They learnt that knowledge, an entrepreneurial mindset and skills can be a great strength and a benefit not only for the individual but for the wider community. They realized that Internet safety and respect are vital issues and that social networking cannot be a surrogate for real life relations. The results were uploaded on the project website as well as on the eTwinning and school websites. They were also shared to the broad community via the media and organizing dissemination events. All the schools benefited from the learning event, improved their images and reinforced their European dimension.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 87860 Eur

Project Coordinator

Berufskolleg des Kreises Olpe & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Talijanska srednja skola Rovinj – Scuola Media Superiore Italiana Rovigno
• Välkommaskolan
• istituto magistrale sofonisba anguissola