Ethnographic experiences

Question 1

Young people’s accounts of their working lives are critical to designing effective interventions.
Lived experiences show us that without increasing demand, supply-side interventions only redistribute rather than alter employment levels.

Answer 1

Barford et al (2020)

Question 2

More detail on young people’s working lives.

Answer 2

Barford & Coombe (2019)

Question 3

Ethnography in the urban margins. Tension between experience and representation

Answer 3

Thieme (2017)

Question 4

Youth experiences provide a window on subaltern responses to economic restructuring.

Answer 4

Jeffrey (2012)

Question 5

Details on youth employment in a globalising world.
Youth is a debated concept and defined/conceptualised in varying ways.
Employment has always been central to youth studies since it is seen as a key entry point into adulthood. This interest has grown during times of economic adversity because youth are more likely to be unemployed.
Concepts of unemployment are tricky to apply to the GS because they are already hard to define and even more difficult to conceptualise in countries where informal sectors are the norm.
Policy interventions have tended to treat theyouth as passive, homogenous clients

Answer 5

Gough et al (2013)

Question 6

The NEET concept in comparative youth research: is it useful?
Authors argue yes, because it makes us reflect on strucutral changes that make somebody NEET/not NEET.
They compare NEET use in the Nordic countries vs in South Africa

Answer 6

Holte et al (2019)

Question 7

Africa’s youth unemployment crisis is really a missing jobs crisis.
Debunks the dominant narrative of the youth crisis - and instead looks at the economy
Policy needs to address structural constraints and de-emphasise youth-specific intervention

Answer 7

Sumberg et al (2021)

Question 8

The capacity to aspire

Answer 8

Appadurai (2004)

Question 9

The hustle economy

Answer 9

Thieme (2013, 2017)

Question 10

Challenging the informal/formal dichotomy from Freetown, Sierra Leone

Answer 10

Rigon et al (2020)

Question 11

Case study. Street hustling in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and the street economy

Answer 11

Di Nunzio (2012)

Question 12

Case study. The mtaa hustle in Nairobi’s slums
Slums create material conditions and soical space for inhabitants to create livelihoods
We need to look at both the limits of slum conditions and the agency of inhabitants (structural ambivalence)

Answer 12

Chulek (2020)

Question 13

Case study. Blighted hope, Ghana and the gas and oil industry
Government needs to introduce policies to improve chances of trainees obtaining employment

Answer 13

Darkwah (2013)

Question 14

In India there is a phenomenon of unemployment/underemployment amongst young male university graduates
A mismatch between growing rates of educational attainment and a lack of skilled jobs
In some cases, being educated means you are more likely to be unemployed

Answer 14

Jeffrey et al (2008)

Question 15

Case study. The politics of refusing low-wage jobs in urban South Africa.
The refusal/quitting of jobs is not because of laziness but because young people aspire for more.
Linked to strucutral issues of low pay, racism and a longer struggle of reisstance

Answer 15

Dawson (2022)

Question 16

Case study. Tarmacking in Nakuru, Kenya

Answer 16

Rahier (2024)