Young people as agents in development processes: Reconsidering perspectives for development geography

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 30, Issue 5, 2009, Pages 1027-1044

  Bell, Stephen ^a   Payne, Ruth ^b  

^a UCL Institute of Education   (United Kingdom)

^b NONE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT; DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY; IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION; POWER RELATIONS; YOUNG POPULATION;

AFRICA; EAST AFRICA; SOUTHERN AFRICA; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA; UGANDA; ZAMBIA;

EID: 70449556914     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: 13602241     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436590902959297     Document Type: Article

References (73)

1. J Hart, J Newman & L Ackermann, with T Feeny, Children Changing Their World-Understanding and Evaluating Children's Participation in Development, 2004, at www.plan-uk.org/pdfs/childrenchan-gingtheirworld.pdf, accessed 4 October 2005
2. E Robson, SA Bell & N Klocker, 'Conceptualizing agency in the lives and actions of rural young people', in R Panelli, S Punch & E Robson (eds), Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth: Young Rural Lives, London: Routledge, 2007, pp 135-148
3. N Scheper-Hughes & C Sargent, Small Wars: The Cultural Politics of Childhood, London: University of California Press, 1998.
4. R Hart, 'Children's participation: from tokenism to citizenship', Innocenti Essays, 4, Florence: International Child Development Centre, UNICEF, 1992
5. V Johnson, E Ivan-Smith, G Gordon, P Pridmore & P Scott, Stepping Forward: Children and Young People's Participation in the Development Process, London: Intermediate Technology Publications, 1998.
6. J Boyden & E Ennew, Children in Focus-A Manual for Participatory Research with Children, Stockholm: Grafisk Press, 1997; and Hart et al, Children Changing Their World.
7. N Ansell, Children, Youth and Development, London: Routledge, 2005, p 21, outlines the following features of the 'new social studies of childhood': childhood is socially constructed
8. A James & A Prout, Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood- Contemporary Issues in the Sociological Study of Childhood, London: Falmer Press, 1997
9. A James, C Jenks & A Prout, Theorizing Childhood, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998.
10. Ansell, Children, Youth and Development
11. S Punch, 'Negotiating autonomy: childhoods in rural Bolivia', in L Alanen & B Mayall (eds), Conceptualizing Child-Adult Relations, London: Routledge, 2001.
12. Robson et al, 'Conceptualizing agency in the lives and actions of rural young people'.
13. H Beazley, 'The "Malaysian orphans" of Lombok: children and young people's livelihood responses to out-migration in eastern Indonesia', in Panelli et al, Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth, pp 107-120
14. RED Payne, 'Child-headed households: from concepts to realities', unpublished PhD thesis, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2009
15. SA Bell, "The child drums and the elder dances?" Girlfriends and boyfriends negotiating power relations in rural Uganda', in Panelli et al, Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth, pp 179-192
16. S Punch, 'Generational power relations in rural Bolivia', in Panelli et al, Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth, pp 151-164.
17. Panelli et al, Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth.
18. Robson et al, 'Conceptualizing agency in the lives and actions of rural young people', p 135.
19. Robson et al, 'Conceptualizing agency in the lives and actions of rural young people', p 138.
20. See, for example, C Baylies & J Bujra, AIDS, Sexuality and Gender in Africa-Collective Strategies and Struggles in Tanzania and Zambia, London: Routledge, 2005
21. C Baylies, T Chabala & F Mkandwire, 'AIDS in Kanyama: contested sexual practice and the gendered dynamics of community interventions', in Baylies & Bujra, AIDS, Sexuality and Gender in Africa, pp 95-112
22. M Kamal Smith, 'Gender, poverty and intergenerational vulnerability to HIV/AIDS', Gender and Development, 10 (3), 2002, pp 63-70
23. S Punch, 'Youth transitions and interdependent adult-child relations in rural Bolivia', Journal of Rural Studies, 18 (2), 2002, pp 123-133
24. J Bujra, 'Target practice: gender and generational struggles in AIDS prevention work in Lushoto', in Baylies & Bujra, AIDS, Sexuality and Gender in Africa, pp 113-131
25. Bell, 'The child drums and the elder dances?'
26. Punch, 'Generational power relations in rural Bolivia'.
27. N Bushin, N Ansell, HK Adriansen, J Lahteenmaa & R Panelli, 'Reflecting on contexts and identities for young rural lives', in Panelli et al, Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth, p 77.
28. Punch, 'Youth transitions and interdependent adult-child relations in rural Bolivia'
29. E Robson, 'Hidden child workers: young carers in Zimbabwe', Antipode, 36 (2), 2004, pp 227-248
30. Robson, 'Children at work in rural northern Nigeria: patterns of age, space and gender', Journal of Rural Studies, 20, 2004, pp 193-210.
31. Bushin et al, 'Reflecting on contexts and identities for young rural lives', p 80.
32. A Sen, Development as Freedom, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, p xii, emphasis in the original.
33. A Giddens, The Constitution of Society, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984.
34. M Foucault, 'The subject and power', in H Dryfus & P Rabinow (eds), Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1982.
35. N Klocker, 'An example of "thin" agency: child domestic workers in Tanzania', in Panelli et al, Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth, pp 84-85.
36. Robson et al, 'Conceptualizing agency in the lives and actions of rural young people', p 135.
37. Robson et al, 'Conceptualizing agency in the lives and actions of rural young people', p 142.
38. S Punch, S Bell, L Costello & R Panelli, 'Power and place for rural young people', in Panelli et al, Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth, p 217.
39. SA Bell, 'Exploring empowerment in rural Uganda: young people, sexual health and NGOs', unpublished PhD thesis, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2008.
40. A Honwana & F De Boeck, Makers and Breakers: Children and Youth in Postcolonial Africa, Oxford: James Currey, 2005.
41. The terms 'child' and 'adult' are recognised to be culturally and socially constructed categories which are constantly shifting. For presentational purposes these terms now appear without inverted commas. For further reading, see A Honwana & De Boeck, Makers and Breakers, C Christiansen, M Utas & H Vigh, Navigating Youth, Generating Adulthood: Social Becoming in an African Context, Stockholm, Sweden: Elanders Gotab, 2006
42. D Durham, 'Youth and the social imagination in Africa', Anthropological Quarterly, 73 (3), 2000, pp 113-20
43. KT Hansen, Youth and the City in the Global South, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2008.
44. M Francis-Chizororo, 'The formation, constitution and social dynamics of orphaned child headed households in rural Zimbabwe in the era of HIV/AIDS pandemic', unpublished PhD thesis, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, 2008.
45. Panelli et al, Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth
46. Punch et al, 'Power and place for rural young people'.
47. For further reading about theory and case studies, see Bell, 'The child drums and the elder dances?'
48. JL Parpart, SM Rai & K Staudt, Rethinking Empowerment in a Global/Local World, London: Routledge, 2002
49. Punch et al, 'Power and place for rural young people'
50. M Foucault, 'Space, knowledge and power', in P Rabinow (ed), The Foucault Reader, New York: Pantheon, 1984, pp 239-256
51. JC Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts, London: Yale University Press, 1990
52. Scott, 'The infrapolitics of subordinate groups', in M Rahnema & V Bawtree (eds), The Post-Development Reader, London: Zed Books, 1997, pp 311-328
53. JP Sharp, P Routledge, C Philo & R Paddison, 'Entanglements of power: geographies of domination/resistance', in Sharp et al (eds), Entanglements of Power: Geographies of Domination/Resistance, London: Routledge, 2000, pp 1-42
54. H Beazley, 'A little but enough": street children's subcultures in Yogyakarta, Indonesia', unpublished PhD thesis, Australian National University, Canberra, 1999.
55. S Punch, 'Children's experiences of sibship and birth order: "someone to look up to and someone to look down on"', paper presented at the seminar on 'Children's Kinship', Morgan Centre for the Study of Relationships and Personal Life, University of Manchester, 3 November 2006
56. Punch, 'Generational power relations in rural Bolivia'
57. Bell, 'The child drums and the elder dances?'
58. O Jones, 'Rurality, power and the otherness of childhood in British contexts'
59. Panelli et al, Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth, pp 193-204.
60. Punch et al, 'Power and place for rural young people'.
61. A Giddens, Sociology, Oxford: Polity Press, 2001
62. M Gonzalez de la Rocha, The Resources of Poverty: Women and Survival in a Mexican City, Oxford: Blackwell, 1997
63. SC Ziehl, 'Globalization and family patterns: a view from South Africa', in G Therborn (ed), African Families in a Global Context, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet Research Report No 131, Oslo, 2004, pp 98-118.
64. N Stone & R Ingham, 'Young people and sex and relationships education', in R Ingham & P Aggleton (eds), Promoting Young People's Sexual Health-International Perspectives, London: Routledge, 2006, pp 192-208.
65. As Scheyvens explains, 'the term "subtle strategies" refers to any strategies that attempt to achieve profound, positive changes in women's [or young people's] lives without stirring up wide-scale dissent'. R Scheyvens, 'Subtle strategies for women's empowerment: planning for effective grassroots development', Third World Planning Review, 20 (3), 1998, p 237.
66. This supports Harrison's findings about clandestine relationships among rural South African adolescents, hiding relationships from adults as a strategy to accommodate relationships within the confines of social expectations. A Harrison, 'Hidden love: sexual ideologies and relationship ideals among rural South African adolescents in the context of HIV/AIDS', Culture, Health and Sexuality, 10 (2),2008, pp 175-189.
67. This was known as 'detoothing', and findings conform to Nyanzi et al's study in Masaka District, as well as Maganja et al's study in Tanzania, which illustrates that young Tanzanian women describe this strategy as 'skinning the goat'. 'Detoothing' is a metaphor, likened to a dentist pulling out teeth without giving anything in return. S Nyanzi, R Pool & J Kinsman, 'The negotiation of sexual relationships among school pupils in south-western Uganda', AIDS Care, 13 (1), 2001, pp 83-98
68. RK Maganja, S Maman, A Groves & JK Mbwambo, 'Skinning the goat and pulling the load: transactional sex among youth in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania', AIDS Care, 19 (8), 2007, p 978.
69. C Katz, 'Growing girls/closing circles: limits on the spaces of knowing in rural Sudan and United States cities', in C Katz & J Monk (eds), Full Circles: Geographies of Women over the Life Course, London: Routledge, 1993, pp 88-106
70. S Punch, 'Household division of labour: generation, gender, age, birth order and sibling composition', Work, Employment and Society, 15 (4), 2001, pp 803-823
71. Punch, 'Negotiating autonomy'
72. Punch, 'Childhoods in the majority world: miniature adults or tribal children?', Sociology, 37 (2), 2003, pp 277-295
73. G Valentine, 'Boundary crossings: transitions from childhood to adulthood', Children's Geographies, 1 (1), 2003, pp 37-52.