Theorising Age and Generation in Development: A Relational Approach

Huijsmans, Roy; George, Shanti; Gigengack, R.A.; Evers, Sandra J.T.M.

doi:10.1057/ejdr.2013.65

Cited by 57 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Our approach is informed by a conceptualisation of ‘relationality’ which considers age to be far more social than chronological ( Huijsmans et al, 2014 ). Age ‘is constituted in interaction and gains its meaning in interaction in the context of larger social forces’ ( Laz, 1998 : 86).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Being an ‘adolescent’: The consequences of gendered risks for young people in rural Uganda

et al. 2017

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The behaviour of adolescents is recognised increasingly as having substantial and long-term consequences for their health. We examined the meaning of ‘adolescence’ in southern Uganda with HIV-positive young people aged 11–24 years. Adolescent girls and boys are described differently in the local language (Luganda). Adolescence is described as a behavioural rather than a life course category and an inherently dangerous one. The practices, risks and consequences of ‘adolescent’ behaviour are highly gendered. Local understandings of adolescence are likely to have a significant impact on the efficacy of interventions designed to minimise their ‘risky behaviour’.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Being an ‘adolescent’: The consequences of gendered risks for young people in rural Uganda

et al. 2017

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“…Yet as this Special Issue reveals, whereas African children have valid knowledge and perspectives, they also occupy, to use Ryans' (2008) words, 'a paradoxical position both as object of knowledge and subjects who know' (p. 576). We critique an understanding of age as a line of difference between childhood and adulthood and, in line with Huijsmans et al (2014), argue that adopting a narrow 'child focus' -instead of the relational notion of 'generationing' -disconnects the analysis of children's lives from the very processes of social change it is embedded in. This has important methodological and epistemological implications, that is, to not only situate children's perspectives in wider social contexts, processes and relationships but also consider it from the vantage point of intergenerational relationships.…”

Section: Generationing Social Reproductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Beyond pluralizing African childhoods: Introduction

Abebe

Ofosu-Kusi

2016

Childhood

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This Special Issue of Childhood moves beyond stereotypical images of African children to document the complex ways in which contemporary realities and processes of social transformations shape and are shaped by children's everyday lives. In this editorial, we bring together perspectives that are drawn from 10 articles that report findings from six countries: Zambia, Rwanda, South Africa, Ethiopia, Uganda and Ghana. The insights generated reveal the importance of looking beyond the 'deficit' model of childhood to instead theorize how children, through their engagements in social, economic, cultural and political life, contribute to the reconfiguration of social and generational dynamics that unfolds in Africa.

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“…Much attention has been given to the material outcomes of international development, but there has been less theorization of the ways in which development as practice and ideology transforms how children are constituted as subjects (Huijsmans et al 2014). Possibly one of the most powerful impacts has been widespread acceptance of the conception of childhood promulgated by the CRC and similar international development initiatives.…”

Section: Development As Discourse Constituting New Subjectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children, Impacts of Development on

Boyden

Zharkevich

2018

The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology

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Development can be defined in many ways, but here is taken to be an explicit process involving resources, policies, services, and programs deployed by the state and other actors with the aim of achieving economic growth and social wellbeing for a given population. International development refers to initiatives advancing this agenda in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) specifically. It is widely acknowledged that there is good reason to prioritize children (defined as all individuals under the age of eighteen) in such processes, and the young have now become central to the international development agenda and to national development policies throughout the world. This trend reflects the high proportion of young people relative to total population across many LMICs, recognition of the urgent need to ameliorate the dire conditions faced by countless boys and girls in these settings, and a dramatic expansion of child-focused policies, services, and interventions in recent decades.Two distinct arguments are advanced for channeling development efforts toward the young. The first is shaped by notions of universal justice and human rights and works from the premise that children are inherently vulnerable and dependent and are hence especially deserving of support and protection. They are marked out from other generations as carriers of a distinct set of rights to be safeguarded by designated duty bearers, particularly states and parents. This case finds expression in international child-rights instruments developed over the course of the twentieth century, culminating in the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Here, prioritizing the young in development processes is about applying the concept of rights to achieve agreed international standards for all children everywhere with regard to their survival, development, protection, and participation. The second line of reasoning highlights the threat to life and developmental potential resulting from poverty and other preventable risks to children in LMICs. The first thousand days of life are underlined as the most crucial for child survival and development; recovery from nutritional deprivation or other shocks experienced during this period, it is argued, is highly unlikely, if not impossible. Economists have pursued this line of thinking further in the application of the human-capital framework by underscoring the consequences of early-life deprivations for adult productivity, thereby also drawing attention to the implications for national economic prospects; thus, this particular model is as much about national interests as about the wellbeing of the current generation of young.

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Theorising Age and Generation in Development: A Relational Approach

Cited by 57 publications

References 41 publications

Being an ‘adolescent’: The consequences of gendered risks for young people in rural Uganda

Being an ‘adolescent’: The consequences of gendered risks for young people in rural Uganda

Beyond pluralizing African childhoods: Introduction

Children, Impacts of Development on

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