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Paper submission deadline for the ECAS 2013 conference is 16 January.
For details, see:
http://www.nomadit.co.uk/ecas/ecas2013/panels.php5?PanelID=2327
CFP:
Novel spaces for African youth: creativity, entrepreneurship and
political action
Short Abstract
This panel explores how youth creativity and mobilization outside of
the formal sector contribute to developing alternative political
strategies, social mobility, and new economic niches. Case studies
focus on community policing, economic entrepreneurial activities,
social clubs, student movements, and music and arts.
Long Abstract
Rising unemployment and inequality in African societies present
challenges to development and security on the continent. Neoliberal
deregulation reforms have contributed to the decline of the formal
sector and a crisis of public authority. This affects not least young
men and women, who today represent the largest part of the African
population. The creative survival strategies of the youth often remain
vulnerable and ephemeral, but may also open opportunities for new
forms of empowerment and social mobility.
The panel focuses on how different forms of youth creativity and
mobilization affect the creation of new political spaces and economic
opportunities. Diverse engagements of youth outside of the formal
sector include community policing or vigilantism, economic
entrepreneurial activities, lending groups, student organizations,
arts, music and social clubs. Social movements of youth in Africa are
contesting state policies and traditional institutions of power,
bringing forth novel or alternative discourses, modes of collective
action, and structures of social activism. Along with socio-political
movements, popular culture has emerged as a relevant sphere of youth
empowerment. Musical production and performance have given rise to
various novel entrepreneurial initiatives and critique with
socio-political repercussions.
The panel welcomes papers on the creative responses of contemporary
African youth to current political and economic challenges, focusing
in particularly on how their activities contribute to developing
alternative political strategies, social mobility, and new economic
niches in rural and urban settings. Please fit your paper into any of
the following sub-themes of the panel:
- social movements and alternative political forms and ideologies of
youth and students;
- socio-economic and security-related activities of youth;
- popular culture as a form of youth empowerment.
Discussants: David Pratten, Mats Utas
Convenors:
Tuulikki Pietilä (Collegium for Advanced Studies)
Daivi Rodima-Taylor (Boston University)
Helene Maria Kyed (Danish Institute for International Studies)
Tatiana Smirnova (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS)
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