Social Movements and Marginalized Rural Youth in Brazil, Egypt and Nepal

Abstract

This article seeks to highlight the evolving trends in the roles of youth in rural social movements, noting that such movements are critical if authorities and more dominant classes in society are to listen to powerless and propertyless rural population groups. It has been argued that the phenomenon of youth participation in rural social movements has passed largely unnoticed by development theory in general and social movements theory in particular. This lacuna is deleterious, not least because the main victims of globalization are the young of impoverished rural families, for whom the choice to remain in agriculture, either as petty commodity producers or as landless labourers, is in terms of economic livelihood becoming increasingly fraught. Indeed, uprooted in large numbers, rural youth may provoke a significant disintegration of the peasantry while adding to the multiplication of social problems in urban areas. Fortunately, the increasing socio-economic marginality of young people in rural areas manifests itself in contemporary social movements struggling for political rights and a secure livelihood base. The article is based, in large part, on case studies in Brazil, Egypt and Nepal.

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Notes on contributors

K. B. Ghimire

The present article formed part of the output of UNRISD's research programme on civil society and social movements. Solon Barraclough, Ray Bush, Olle Törnquist and Henry Veltmeyer read an earlier draft and made thouhtful observations. Tom Brass provided editorial input, as well as many incisive comments.