Young People in the Global South (Rethinking Development)

Young People in the Global South: Voice, Agency and Citizenship explores the spatial, relational, affective and material dimensions of adolescents’ and young people’s civic engagement and political participation in lower- and middle-income contexts. This textbook questions how the ‘everyday politics’ of exercising voice and agency is experienced at different scales, from the interpersonal to the global.

It explores how structural inequalities and marginalisation, as well as social norms and attitudes, shape how voice, agency and participation are expressed by diverse young people in particular contexts with unique histories. Contributing authors focus on the experiences of young people who are marginalised based on age, gender, sexuality, disability, citizenship status and geographical location. Together they show how ageing through adolescence enables or constrains agency and voice. Textbook features include case studies on Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, as well as reflective accounts authored by adolescents and young people themselves, and discussion questions.

Filling a key gap in the knowledge about the concerns and experiences of young people in contexts beyond the Global North, this textbook will be of interest to academics, students and practitioners in the fields of childhood and youth studies, international development, social movements, human geography, sociology and comparative politics.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Kate Pincock is a Researcher on the Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) programme at ODI and a Research Associate at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford. Her research interests include critical theories of agency; age, gender and sexualities; participatory methodologies; and postcolonial work on displacement, borders and mobility. She is the author of The Global Governed (2020) and co-editor of Adolescents in Humanitarian Crisis: Gender, Displacement and Social Inequalities (2021).

Nicola Jones is a Principal Research Fellow at ODI and Director of GAGE, the largest longitudinal research study in the Global South (2016–2016), following 20,000 adolescent girls and boys across the second decade of life. Her research focuses on gender, adolescence and childhood, social protection and gender norm change in developmental and conflict-affected contexts in sub-Saharan Africa, East and South Asia, and the Middle East. Nicola has published widely including two recent co-edited volumes with Routledge: Adolescents in Humanitarian Crisis: Gender, Displacement and Social Inequalities (2021) and Adolescent Girls and Empowerment: Towards Gender Justice (2018).

Lorraine van Blerk, FAcSS, is a Professor of Human Geography at the University of Dundee, UK, and an Honorary Professor at the Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town, South Africa. Her research focuses on childhood and youth, with a particular focus on participatory and co-produced research. Her research has examined issues of homelessness, refugee status and other aspects of marginalisation and exclusion for young people in urban and rural settings, most notably across Africa. She is co-editor/author of four books and has written in excess of 100 academic and policy-related publications. Lorraine co-led the Growing Up On The Streets longitudinal and qualitative research programme and leads subsequent affiliated projects.

Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda is the Founder and Chief Executive of the Rozaria Memorial Trust and former World YWCA General Secretary. She is a trained human rights lawyer with extensive experience in conflict resolution and mediation. She is also the current chair of CIVICUS and serves on the Advisory Committee for Girls Not Brides. She was appointed a member of the High Level Group on HIV Prevention and Sexual Health for Young People in Eastern and Southern Africa by the United Nations, following her service as a member of the UN Commission on Information and Accountability on Women and Children’s Health. In May 2014 she was named Goodwill Ambassador of the African Union Campaign to End Child Marriage.