Urban assemblage, street youth and the sub-Saharan African city

Abstract

This paper draws on the explanatory power of assemblage thinking to consider the lives and urban experiences of young people growing up on the streets of sub-Saharan African cities. Urban assemblage is used to articulate a ‘thick description’ of the practices of coping with extreme poverty and marginalisation and to identify the effects of these actions on the construction of both young lives and the city. Focusing on a central idea of urban assemblage as a process of formation/transformation, the paper examines the strategies and performances adopted by street youth to meet their basic needs and navigate complex power and social relationships. Highlighting constrained agency, assemblage thinking is employed to demonstrate how multiple small actions of coping shape the urban experiences of street youth and their transition into adulthood.

Key words:

• cities
• urban assemblage
• street youth
• sub-Saharan Africa

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Wayne Shand

Wayne Shand is an independent consultant and an honorary research fellow at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.