The youth concept in the discourse of the Unesco (1985)

Abstract

In this paper we analyze the text "For the International Year of Youth: A Message" passed in the closing session of the "A Board about the Youth in the 1980s" held in Costinesti (Romania) from 31 May to June 5, 1982 and organized by Unesco. Within the framework of Discourse critical studies, we examine how to build the youth concept from the interconnection of two vectors: first, a representation of discourse that is built on positive images of young subjects and, on the other, from an ideological matrix that assign negative notes to them. The constructs identified are "Youth" as key to the future development, "Youth" with less enthusiasm and aggressive "Youth". These discourse configurations, that asume contradictory traits are interwoven with strong signs that derive from the principles of structural functionalism.