Young People as Agents in Development Processes: reconsidering perspectives for development geography

Abstract

This paper explores the role of young people in development processes. This is achieved through an examination of the latest developments in literature concerning young people's identity, agency and experiences of power relations and by reflecting on our own empirical research with young people in Zambia (child-headed households) and Uganda (empowerment and sexual health). In particular, we discuss the opportunities and challenges faced by young people in terms of taking greater control over their own lives and contributing to the development of their communities. In doing so we further understanding of how young people (inter)act to improve their own lives and negotiate the challenging—and changing—realities and relationships they experience.

Notes

We are grateful to the Economic and Social Research Council (esrc) for their financial support of these doctoral research projects. We also acknowledge the UK-based ngo, Street Child Africa, which was the non-academic partner for Payne's research in Zambia and thank Misereor eV Germany for their additional financial support for her collaborative research. We also thank Prof David Simon, Dr Katie Willis and Dr Vandana Desai at the Centre for Developing Areas Research, Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, for their supervision of our doctoral research. Ruth Payne also thanks Fr Patrick Shanahan and Felix Holman at sca for their supervision during the project.

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/childrenchangingtheirworld.pdf, accessed 4 October 2005; 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; and N Scheper-Hughes & C Sargent, Small Wars: The Cultural Politics of Childhood, London: University of California Press, 1998.

2 R Hart, ‘Children's participation: from tokenism to citizenship’, Innocenti Essays, 4, Florence: International Child Development Centre, unicef, 1992; and 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.

3 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.

4 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; childhood is a variable of social analysis which cannot be entirely separated from other social variables (eg gender, class and ethnicity); children's social relationships and cultures are worthy of study in their own right, independent of the concerns of adults; children are actively involved in the construction of their own social lives; the development of a new paradigm is a contribution to the process of reconstructing childhood in society. See also A James & A Prout, Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood—Contemporary Issues in the Sociological Study of Childhood, London: Falmer Press, 1997; and A James, C Jenks & A Prout, Theorizing Childhood, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998.

5 See Ansell, Children, Youth and Development; and S Punch, ‘Negotiating autonomy: childhoods in rural Bolivia’, in L Alanen & B Mayall (eds), Conceptualizing Child–Adult Relations, London: Routledge, 2001.

6 Robson et al, ‘Conceptualizing agency in the lives and actions of rural young people’.

7 See, for example, 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; RED Payne, ‘Child-headed households: from concepts to realities’, unpublished PhD thesis, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2009; 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; and S Punch, ‘Generational power relations in rural Bolivia’, in Panelli et al, Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth, pp 151–164.

8 Panelli et al, Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth.

9 Robson et al, ‘Conceptualizing agency in the lives and actions of rural young people’, p 135.

10 Ibid, p 138.

11 See, for example, C Baylies & J Bujra, aids, Sexuality and Gender in Africa—Collective Strategies and Struggles in Tanzania and Zambia, London: Routledge, 2005; 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; M Kamal Smith, ‘Gender, poverty and intergenerational vulnerability to hiv/aids’, Gender and Development, 10 (3), 2002, pp 63–70; S Punch, ‘Youth transitions and interdependent adult–child relations in rural Bolivia’, Journal of Rural Studies, 18 (2), 2002, pp 123–133; 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; Bell, ‘The child drums and the elder dances?’; and Punch, ‘Generational power relations in rural Bolivia’.

12 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.

13 Punch, ‘Youth transitions and interdependent adult–child relations in rural Bolivia’; E Robson, ‘Hidden child workers: young carers in Zimbabwe’, Antipode, 36 (2), 2004, pp 227–248; and Robson, ‘Children at work in rural northern Nigeria: patterns of age, space and gender’, Journal of Rural Studies, 20, 2004, pp 193–210.

14 Bushin et al, ‘Reflecting on contexts and identities for young rural lives’, p 80.

15 A Sen, Development as Freedom, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, p xii, emphasis in the original.

16 A Giddens, The Constitution of Society, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984.

17 M Foucault, ‘The subject and power’, in H Dryfus & P Rabinow (eds), Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1982.

18 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.

19 Robson et al, ‘Conceptualizing agency in the lives and actions of rural young people’, p 135.

20 Ibid, p142.

21 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.

22 Payne, ‘Child-headed households: from concepts to realities’; and G Foster, ‘Children rearing children: a study of child-headed households’, paper presented at the conference on ‘Socio-Demographic Impact of aids in Africa’, Kenya, 3–6 February 1997.

23 SA Bell, ‘Exploring empowerment in rural Uganda: young people, sexual health and ngos’, unpublished PhD thesis, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2008.

24 A Honwana & F De Boeck, Makers and Breakers: Children and Youth in Postcolonial Africa, Oxford: James Currey, 2005.

25 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 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; D Durham, ‘Youth and the social imagination in Africa’, Anthropological Quarterly, 73 (3), 2000, pp 113–20; and KT Hansen, Youth and the City in the Global South, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2008.

26 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.

27 Panelli et al, Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth; and Punch et al, ‘Power and place for rural young people’.

28 For further reading about theory and case studies, see Bell, ‘The child drums and the elder dances?’; JL Parpart, SM Rai & K Staudt, Rethinking Empowerment in a Global/Local World, London: Routledge, 2002; Punch et al, ‘Power and place for rural young people’; M Foucault, ‘Space, knowledge and power’, in P Rabinow (ed), The Foucault Reader, New York: Pantheon, 1984, pp 239–256; JC Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts, London: Yale University Press, 1990; Scott, ‘The infrapolitics of subordinate groups’, in M Rahnema & V Bawtree (eds), The Post-Development Reader, London: Zed Books, 1997, pp 311–328; 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; and H Beazley, ‘A little but enough”: street children's subcultures in Yogyakarta, Indonesia’, unpublished PhD thesis, Australian National University, Canberra, 1999.

29 All names have been changed.

30 Toby and Emma were actually cousins but referred to each other as brother and sister, as is common practice among kin in Zambia

31 Field diary extract, 8 August 2006.

32 Field diary extract, 5 October 2005.

33 See 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; Punch, ‘Generational power relations in rural Bolivia’; Bell, ‘The child drums and the elder dances?’; and O Jones, ‘Rurality, power and the otherness of childhood in British contexts’, in Panelli et al, Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth, pp 193–204.

34 Punch et al, ‘Power and place for rural young people’.

35 Using an average exchange rate of £1.00=ZMK8500.

36 Generic term used for roots used to make Monkoyo, a type of African brew with low alcohol content.

37 Field diary extract, 7 June 2006.

38 Extract from household discussion, 29 September 2005. ngo L had appointed two community members to act as mentors for the boys, who referred to them as their ‘matron’ and ‘patron’.

39 Simon and Trevor were actually half-brothers, sharing a father.

40 An ntemba is a local term for a small kiosk from which people sell.

41 A Giddens, Sociology, Oxford: Polity Press, 2001; M Gonzalez de la Rocha, The Resources of Poverty: Women and Survival in a Mexican City, Oxford: Blackwell, 1997; and 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.

42 The impact of alcoholism in affecting household relations and division of responsibility has received some attention in relation to the effects on women (eg Brickell, 2008) and, to a limited extent on young people, especially in the minority world (eg Bancroft et al, 2004). However, it has not been a subject of debate within work on chhs which has been dominated by a focus on hiv/aids and orphanhood as causes of child-headedness (eg Francis-Chizororo, 2008). K Brickell, “‘Fire in the house”: gendered experiences of drunkenness and violence in Siem Reap, Cambodia’, Geoforum, 39 (5), 2008 pp 1667–1675; A Bancroft, S Wilson, S Cunningham-Burley, K Backett-Milburn & H Masters, Parental Drug and Alcohol Misuse: Resilience and Transition among Young People, York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2005, at http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/ebooks/1859352499.pdf, accessed 25 May 2008; and Francis-Chizororo, ‘The formation, constitution and social dynamics of orphaned child headed households in rural Zimbabwe in the era of hiv/aids pandemic’.

43 Extract from household discussion, 26 August 2005. A chitenge is a local cloth used as a form of dress and to carry children.

44 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.

45 Male Christian leader, Iganga District, 25 July 2005.

46 Busza explains that ‘[Transactional sex] refers to the exchange of sex for material support of some kind, including cash, gifts, and economic assistance such as payments for rent or school fees … the term generally does not refer to a professional interaction but rather a financial arrangement within other relationships, often characterized by friendship, affection, or romantic attachment.’ J Busza, ‘For love or money: the role of exchange in young people's sexual relationships’, in Ingham & Aggleton, Promoting Young People's Sexual Health, p 135.

47 Girl out of school, 18, Mpigi District, 23 June 2005.

48 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.

49 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.

50 Schoolgirl, 16, Mbale District, 25 May 2005.

51 Boy out of school, 16, Iganga District, 4 August 2005.

52 Schoolgirl, 15, Mbale District 15 July 2004.

53 Boy out of school, 16, Mpigi District 7 July 2005.

54 Schoolgirl, 16, Mbale District, 25 May 2005.

55 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; and 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.

56 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; S Punch, ‘Household division of labour: generation, gender, age, birth order and sibling composition’, Work, Employment and Society, 15 (4), 2001, pp 803–823; Punch, ‘Negotiating autonomy’; Punch, ‘Childhoods in the majority world: miniature adults or tribal children?’, Sociology, 37 (2), 2003, pp 277–295; and G Valentine, ‘Boundary crossings: transitions from childhood to adulthood’, Children's Geographies, 1 (1), 2003, pp 37–52.

57 Francis-Chizororo, ‘The formation, constitution and social dynamics of orphaned child headed households in rural Zimbabwe in the era of hiv/aids pandemic’; and SE Germann, ‘An exploratory study of quality of life and coping strategies of orphans living in child-headed households in the high hiv/aids prevalent city of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of South Africa, 2005.