Tradycja czy nowoczesność? Młodzi mieszkańcy Górnego Śląska a fundamenty świata wartości

Contemporary world offers a far-reaching variety of ideologies, philosophies and possibilities of living. At the same time, there is no guarantee when it comes to universality and inviolability of any kind of moral values. This situation becomes the source of anxiety and even violent existential conflicts. Ever stronger individualisation and deinstitutionalization processes cause people (youth in particular) to face the whole range of serious challenges. We could risk the thesis that a new mentality of the young generation is being formed and developed on the basis of contemporary social, political, economic and cultural transformations. Technical and technological progress results in a situation, that the youth and adolescence is significantly different nowadays from the youth of today’s adults. The future of the young generation is then questionable. In the conditions of the risk society nobody can be sure of their future. Hence, the questions about constant points of reference which let us not to loose orientation in this complicated reality become more and more important. This article analyses the foundations of axionormative systems possible to be identified among young inhabitants of Upper Silesia. Thanks to the analysis of the specificity related to young people’s world of values, we can come closer to answer the question about the location of today’s youth on the tradition-modernity axis. It seems that reflexion of this type can not only throw light on the situation of Silesian young people, but it also allows for careful conclusions in relation to all young Poles