Learning to be digital consumers. How to improve young people’s financial skills in a technologically driven consumer society? (DigiConsumers) (DigiConsumers)


Main funder

Funder's project number327243


Funds granted by main funder (€)

  • 384 157,00


Funding program


Project timetable

Project start date01/06/2019

Project end date31/08/2022


Summary

Technological development and digitalization have caused major changes to consumer cultures and financial behavior of young people, in particular. It is widely acknowledged that the digitalization of consumption and marketing requires new financial skills from young people, in particular. The DigiConsumers- project aims at developing tools for improving young people’s financial skills in digitalising consumer environments. How to keep up in the economic turbulence of the future, and how to promote the readiness of our youth in the future global world that calls for increasingly innovative ways of solving complex problems?
The main research questions are:
1. How is digital technology changing young people’s consumer cultures and financial behavior, and which social and cognitive-affective factors have an impact on consumption? What kinds of challenges and advantages technological development has brought forth?
2. What kinds of educational tools are needed for educational institutes, families and policy makers to improve young people’s financial and digital skills and consumer competence?
3. How to improve the ethical conduct of digital marketing and online services targeted to young people, in order to create a socially, ethically and economically sustainable consumer society?
In order to understand the social, cultural and personal factors affecting young people’s financial behaviour in digital consumer environments, our consortium utilizes multi-disciplinary expertise of experienced researchers from the fields of sociology, psychology, and cognitive science (WP1, WP2). To involve the context of school and learning, analyzing the results of PISA, for instance, the expertise of educational sciences is important (WP3, WP2). In the field of economics (WP4), understanding the financial behavior of young people and families and developing game-based interventions and digital tools to improve financial literacy is also central in this project.
We expect DigiConsumers to produce directly applicable scientific knowledge on young people’s financial and digital skills and related problems and advantages, and impacting social and subjective factors. We will recognise the challenges in this process, and develop practical tools for improving consumer competence and financial education in families, schools, relevant public institutions and NGOs. In the long run, the results of DigiConsumers will build a socially and economically sustainable information society.


Principal Investigator


Other persons related to this project (JYU)

Contact person (yes/no)Yes


Primary responsible unit


Related publications and other outputs


Last updated on 2023-20-04 at 11:36