Being young and urban: changing patterns of youth involvement in local environmental action in Lima, Peru

Abstract

This article discusses youth engagement in local environmental action in a peripheral settlement in Lima, Peru. Urban local environmental action is analysed in terms of the so-called “brown agenda”, covering issues as the provision of drinking water and sanitation, waste collection, the paving of roads, adequate housing and the creation of green areas. The article describes how these brown agenda issues are mainly realised through adult collective action, with the notable exception of the creation of parks. Young people are intensively engaged in the creation of green areas and public spaces. This turned out to be a battle for physical as well as for social political space. Despite the fact that different youth groups were successful in creating parks and public space, adults tended to claim back these spaces once constructed. With the gradual consolidation of the neighbourhoods over time, the need for and interest in collective action dwindled, both among adults and among youth.

Keywords:

• local environmental action
• urban
• youth
• youth participation

Notes

It is interesting to note that in the most recent UN conference on the Environment, Rio+20 in June 2012, an extended version of the classic Human Development Index was launched, the Human Sustainable Development Index. This index tries to measure progress on realising development goals (measured through income, life expectancy and literacy), coupled with sustainability goals (measured in per capita carbon emissions).

See United Nations Millennium Development Goals (2012) for more details.

It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss the definition of “youth”. See for two recent critical accounts Jeffrey (2008) and Mabala (2011).

It is worth mentioning that the establishment of this World Bank supported national government programme was inspired by the work of Hernando de Soto. His approach to legalising land tenure has been promoted as strongly as earlier Turner's aided self-help housing. De Soto's premise that with legal ownership over their land the poor would have access to (commercial) credit has proven mistaken. Banks showed no interest in the property of the urban poor. For more details on Turners and De Soto's work in Lima, see Fernandez-Maldonado (2007).

When the participatory action research turned out to require more external support than I could offer on my own, a group of young Peruvian professionals was brought together to support the initiatives of inhabitants. This has evolved into the organisation Aynimundo. For a decade, Aynimundo has supported youth initiatives in Pampas de San Juan. Whenever I use “we” in this article, I refer to this team of Aynimundo, of which I have been part from 1998–2000 on a regular basis, and between 2000 and 2004 in a more distant manner. The team still exists and continues to work in the poorest areas of San Juan de Miraflores, see Aynimundo (2012).

When quoting from their interviews, I make reference to this using their initials ND, AP and IA, respectively.

For an extensive account of the history and development of Pampas de San Juan, see Hordijk (2000).

Riofrio, personal communication, cited in Hordijk (2000, p. 95).

Children came with their mothers to the workshops. They were given a separate working table where they could also draw their plans for the neighbourhood, as their parents did.

Both in the workshops as in the series of interviews some youngsters older than 24 participated. This most often was the result of their leadership position, or because I returned to youngsters that had been active in the mid 1990s to discuss the changes they saw in youth involvement.