Navigating Youth, Generating Adulthood
Subtitle: Social Becoming in an African Context
Contributors: Catrine Christiansen (Editor); Mats Utas (Editor); Henrik E. Vigh (Editor)
Publisher: Nordic Africa Institute; Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
Published: November 2006
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9789171065780
Subjects: Third World Development; Archaeology / Anthropology; Social Science; Sociology; Anthropology - Cultural; Developing Countries; Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural; Africa; Social conditions; Teenagers; Youth
Description: This book focuses on the lives and experiences of young people in Africa. On agents who, willingly or unwillingly, see themselves as belonging to the socio-generational category of youth and the ways in which they seek to shape and unfold their lives in a positive manner. Rather than seeing youth as either a social or cultural entity in itself, or as a predefined life-stage, the book argues for an exploration of how youth position themselves and are positioned within generational categories. In studying young people, social scientists must conceptualise youth as both social being and social becoming; a position in movement. It is from the duality of being positioned and seeking one's own socio-generational position that this book engages in the debate on contemporary African youth.