IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsoctx/v8y2018i1p14-d133701.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Global Generation? Youth Studies in a Postcolonial World

Author

Listed:
  • Joschka Philipps

    (Centre for African Studies Basel, Rheinsprung 21, 4051 Basel, Switzerland)

Abstract

Today’s young people navigate a world that becomes simultaneously more interconnected and less capable of silencing long-standing inequities. What analytical perspectives does a sociology of youth and generations require in such a context? This paper makes two suggestions: to conceptualize generations as global rather than regionally bound (cf. Mannheim 1928) and to transgress the colonial bifurcation of academia between sociology for the so-called ‘modern’ world and area studies and anthropology for the so-called ‘developing’ world. Drawing from a large body of literature on African youth that has hitherto remained unheeded in youth studies, as well as from postcolonial theory and ethnographic fieldwork in Guinea and Uganda, I argue that academic representations of African youth constitute a particularly insightful repertoire for investigating the methodological challenges and potentials of a global sociological perspective on youth.

Suggested Citation

  • Joschka Philipps, 2018. "A Global Generation? Youth Studies in a Postcolonial World," Societies, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-18, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:8:y:2018:i:1:p:14-:d:133701
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/1/14/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/1/14/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Urdal, Henrik & Hoelscher, Kristian, 2009. "Urban youth bulges and social disorder : an empirical study of Asian and Sub-Saharan African cities," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5110, The World Bank.
    2. Jennifer Robinson, 2011. "Cities in a World of Cities: The Comparative Gesture," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 1-23, January.
    3. Joschka Philipps, 2016. "Crystallising contention: social movements, protests and riots in African Studies," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(150), pages 592-607, October.
    4. Amin Y. Kamete, 2010. "Defending Illicit Livelihoods: Youth Resistance in Harare's Contested Spaces," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 55-75, March.
    5. Tom Goodfellow, 2014. "Legal Manoeuvres and Violence: Law Making, Protest and Semi-Authoritarianism in Uganda," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(4), pages 753-776, July.
    6. Mr. Paulo Drummond & Mr. Vimal V Thakoor & Shu Yu, 2014. "Africa Rising: Harnessing the Demographic Dividend," IMF Working Papers 2014/143, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sharon Johnson & Izanette Van Schalkwyk, 2022. "Bridging the Gap of the Afri–Eurocentric Worldview Divide in a Postcolonial South Africa," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-19, January.
    2. Neslihan K. Cevik, 2022. "The Millennial Generational Style: New Global Political and Economic Orientations," Journal of Economy Culture and Society, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 65(65), pages 29-46, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Steffen Wetzstein, 2017. "The global urban housing affordability crisis," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(14), pages 3159-3177, November.
    2. Gore, Christopher D., 2018. "How African cities lead: Urban policy innovation and agriculture in Kampala and Nairobi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 169-180.
    3. Ingmar Pastak & Anneli KÄHRIK, 2021. "SYMBOLIC DISPLACEMENT REVISITED: Place‐making Narratives in Gentrifying Neighbourhoods of Tallinn," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(5), pages 814-834, September.
    4. Jaime Sobrino, 2013. "Urban demographic growth: the case of megacities," Chapters, in: Peter Karl Kresl & Jaime Sobrino (ed.), Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Urban Economies, chapter 14, pages 343-371, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Alexandra Titz & Sosten S. Chiotha, 2019. "Pathways for Sustainable and Inclusive Cities in Southern and Eastern Africa through Urban Green Infrastructure?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-27, May.
    6. Gudrun Østby, 2016. "Rural–urban migration, inequality and urban social disorder: Evidence from African and Asian cities," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 33(5), pages 491-515, November.
    7. Tim Bunnell & Daniel P. S. Goh & Chee-Kien Lai & C. P. Pow, 2012. "Introduction: Global Urban Frontiers? Asian Cities in Theory, Practice and Imagination," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(13), pages 2785-2793, October.
    8. Lim, Sun Sun, 2017. "Youth workers' use of Facebook for mediated pastoralism with juvenile delinquents and youths-at-risk," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 139-147.
    9. Rory Horner, 2017. "What is global development," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 202017, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    10. Jennifer Robinson & Katia Attuyer, 2021. "Extracting Value, London Style: Revisiting the Role of the State in Urban Development," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 303-331, March.
    11. Christine Hentschel, 2015. "Postcolonializing Berlin and The Fabrication of The Urban," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 79-91, January.
    12. Willem Paling, 2012. "Planning a Future for Phnom Penh: Mega Projects, Aid Dependence and Disjointed Governance," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(13), pages 2889-2912, October.
    13. Kanbur, Ravi & Steenkamp, Francois & Rooney, Christopher & Bhorat, Haroon, 2017. "Sub-Saharan Africa’s Manufacturing Sector: Building Complexity," CEPR Discussion Papers 12073, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Ashira Menashe-Oren, 2020. "Migrant-based youth bulges and social conflict in urban sub-Saharan Africa," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 42(3), pages 57-98.
    15. Yong-Sook Lee & Eun-Jung Hwang, 2012. "Global Urban Frontiers through Policy Transfer? Unpacking Seoul’s Creative City Programmes," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(13), pages 2817-2837, October.
    16. Ryan Thomas Devlin & Francesca Piazzoni, 2023. "In the name of history: (De)Legitimising street vendors in New York and Rome," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(1), pages 109-125, January.
    17. Astrid Wood, 2016. "Tracing policy movements: Methods for studying learning and policy circulation," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(2), pages 391-406, February.
    18. Desiree Fields & Sabina Uffer, 2016. "The financialisation of rental housing: A comparative analysis of New York City and Berlin," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(7), pages 1486-1502, May.
    19. Seth Schindler, 2014. "Producing and contesting the formal/informal divide: Regulating street hawking in Delhi, India," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(12), pages 2596-2612, September.
    20. Wagschal Uwe & Metz Thomas, 2016. "A Demographic Peace? Youth Bulges and Other Population-Related Causes of Domestic Conflict," Statistics, Politics and Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1-2), pages 55-97, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:8:y:2018:i:1:p:14-:d:133701. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.