10 > Next Generation Myanmar Identifying research questions In identifying research questions for the Next Generation Myanmar study, the research team took a participatory approach, involving the key constituency of the project: young people. A task force of youth leaders and practitioners oversaw the implementation of the research from beginning to end, and an advisory board revised its research questions. After the research team identified seven areas to explore from the literature review, the advisory board reviewed and refined proposed questions. In choosing these questions, the research team ensured they contributed to the findings of previous studies, rather than replicated them. The team also selected questions addressing areas that previous studies overlooked. Other Next Generation studies conducted by the British Council in other countries also informed the questions included in this study. The areas of opinion researched in the Next Generation Myanmar study are below. Opportunities and expectations towards life Next Generation studies conducted elsewhere examined youth attitudes and expectations towards life in general.12 To our knowledge, similar studies do not exist in Myanmar. Given the policy-specific focus of previous studies, existing literature omits more general inquires about youth attitudes towards the future and their prospects within it. The Next Generation Myanmar study includes such questions to better understand the outlook of Myanmar youth – the first time such questions have been systematically posed on a national scale. 12 13 14 Youth were asked about their personal goals, as well as issues that concerned them. Youth aspirations were explored alongside issues that they feel might prevent them from reaching their goals. Informed by previous studies, youth were asked how unemployment, drug use, social media and other features of youth life affect their expectations for the future. To maintain dialogue with recognised research, questions on life expectations included in the Next Generation Myanmar study were informed by those asked in the 2018 World Values Survey (WVS), led by American political scientist Ronald Inglehart. The WVS seeks to ‘help scientists and policy makers understand changes in the beliefs, values and motivations of people throughout the world’ (World Values Survey, n.d.). The WVS has been conducted globally in six separate enumerations since 1981, yet it has never included Myanmar. The questions included were updated with the help of the advisory board to ensure contextual relevance. Values and identity The Next Generation Myanmar examines the aspects of their lives that they value, from family to friends, education to religion. These findings then inform questions of identity – a complex feature of everyday life in Myanmar. Building upon examples set by the Next Generation studies conducted in Ukraine and Bangladesh,13 these questions assess the degree to which youth value ethnicity and religion, compared to other aspects of their lives. The study then examines how these views inform ethnic and religious identity among Myanmar youth. In detailing the questions related to identity, the research – in addition to input from the youth advisory board – drew on academic research, including by Australian political scientist Michael > See British Council (2009), Chapter 2. See also British Council (2015b: 2). > See British Council (2015a and 2015b). > For an example of the concept of social terrain, see Vigh (2006). Leach, whose work includes longitudinal studies of youth identities in Timor-Leste (Leach, 2008, 2012). Social engagement Myanmar’s new institutions offer new opportunities for youth engagement, but few studies have explored youth interest in them. The Next Generation Myanmar study asks youth about their involvement, or lack thereof, in student unions, civil society organisations, political parties and other civic groups. These questions ask if social engagement is an emerging norm in Myanmar, and if so, to what extent. The study also examines disparities between different groups of youth in taking advantage of these new opportunities. Attitudes towards institutions Like the Next Generation studies conducted in Pakistan and Bangladesh, the Next Generation Myanmar study includes various questions on the political and social institutions under which youth live. Survey questions not only examine youth perceptions of formal institutions, such as parliaments, the military and religious bodies, but also of several informal and cultural norms. These social institutions, sometimes collectively referred to as ‘social terrain’, are the socio-political forces upon which youth must navigate their lives.14 Questions included in this study probe for youth’s perceptions of implicit gender roles, emerging norms of civic activity, and other elements of their social terrain. Questions about ‘elders’ were also included, accounting for Myanmar’s particular tendency for older leadership. These questions build upon research conducted by the Paung Sie Facility (2017: 46), which identifies inter-generational relations as an important social institution for further study.