‘We are managing!’ Uncertain paths to respectable adulthoods in Accra, Ghana

Langevang, Thilde

doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2008.09.003

Cited by 143 publications

(148 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…For many young people, their insecure life paths begin at an early age with the break-up of families either due to the death, which is particularly high in Zambia due to the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, or separation/divorce of parents. As has been shown in a Zambian context (Ansell et al, 2011;Day and Evans, 2015;Locke and te Lintelo, 2012) and elsewhere in subSaharan Africa (Langevang, 2008b), these are vital events that come to have a significant impact on young people's housing, educational and consequently employment trajectories through having to move household and/or house and being unable to pay school fees. Getting married, and for some the subsequent untimely death of their spouse, affects where young people live and their income-generating activities.…”

Section: Linking Scales and Domains Of Employment Insecuritymentioning

confidence: 93%

Expanding the scales and domains of (in)security: Youth employment in urban Zambia

2015

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Most research on issues of (in)security has tended to have a military/safety angle and focus on global/national scales linked to spectacular events. This paper addresses the overlooked insecurity realities of urban dwellers in the global South through a focus on more persistent and enduring forms of employment insecurities among young people. Building on both quantitative and qualitative data collected in a low-income settlement in Lusaka, Zambia, we explore how young people perceive their employment situation and examine the practices they engage in when seeking ways of making a living. Through analysing their views and experiences we show how employment insecurity is influenced by processes operating at the body, local, national and global scales, and how employment insecurity is closely interconnected with insecurity in other domains of young people's lives including the household, housing and education. Although the youth unemployment situation is often viewed as a serious threat to human security, we show how the lack of stable employment in itself is a manifestation of insecurity.

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Section: Linking Scales and Domains Of Employment Insecuritymentioning

confidence: 93%

Expanding the scales and domains of (in)security: Youth employment in urban Zambia

2015

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“…The youth of marriage partners is seldom remarked on except where the discourse of "child marriage" is invoked. Youth geographers have noted a widespread prolongation of youth associated with delayed marriage (Jeffrey, 2010a;Langevang, 2008) and the difficulties many young men face in accumulating the resources required to marry, which is a necessary precursor to "social adulthood" (Hansen, 2005;Singerman, 2013). However, little consideration has been given to the broader role marriage plays in lifecourses or in society at large.…”

Section: Thematic and Conceptual Approaches To The Geographies Of Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risks and strategies of Amazonian households: Retail sales and mass-market consumption amongcaboclowomen

Chelekis

2017

Economic Anthropology

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Marriage among African teenagers is currently a central focus of campaigns by UN agencies and international NGOs. Yet marriage has received only limited attention from geographers and has largely escaped the attention of geographers of youth. In this paper we explore the relational geographies of age that underlie young people's motivations for, and experiences of, marriage in two rural African settings with differing marriage practices: matrilocal southern Malawi and patrilocal Lesotho. We draw on participatory research activities and life history interviews conducted with 80 people aged between 10 and 24 years old. While the young people's attitudes and experiences were varied and complex, starkly different accounts emerged from the two settings. In particular, young women in Lesotho offered very negative assessments of marriage, while those in Malawi were very much more positive. Through these examples, we highlight how young people's marriage choices and experiences are relationally produced. Decisions about whether, when and whom to marry reflect socially entrenched expectations concerning generational allocations of resources, labour and responsibilities, which intersect with contemporary social and economic processes including poverty, unemployment, land scarcity and AIDS. Experiences of marriage, too, are produced through practices that are spatially structured and contextually situated in relation to socio-economic conditions. Thus marriage, as a "vital conjuncture" in young people's lives, plays a key role in the relational construction of individual lifecourses and in (re)constructing relationships of age, gender and, especially, generation.

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“…More critical studies have advocated a relational approach, exploring the roles of families and peers (Hopkins and Pain 2007;Langevang 2008) and other generations (Tucker 2003), as well as contexts of poverty (van Blerk 2008) and recognising that the endpoint of transition may be 'negotiated interdependence' (Punch 2002) rather than independence. Broader relational concepts of lifecourse also allow for exploration of other events and transitions punctuating individuals' lives, beyond those examined in youth transition studies (Bailey 2009), including unexpected 'fateful moments' (Worth 2009), 'vital conjunctures' (Langevang 2008) and rites of passage (Teather 1999). These may contribute to a 'processual and non-linear transition' rather than neat transfers between distinct life stages (Langevang 2008(Langevang :2040.…”

Section: Space Time and Time-space In Young Livesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Broader relational concepts of lifecourse also allow for exploration of other events and transitions punctuating individuals' lives, beyond those examined in youth transition studies (Bailey 2009), including unexpected 'fateful moments' (Worth 2009), 'vital conjunctures' (Langevang 2008) and rites of passage (Teather 1999). These may contribute to a 'processual and non-linear transition' rather than neat transfers between distinct life stages (Langevang 2008(Langevang :2040. Research has also begun to examine how lifecourses are built over time, with accumulations of experiences, resources, and vulnerabilities shaping subsequent lifechances (Bailey 2009), as well as the role of wider processes (Hopkins and Pain 2007;Langevang and Gough 2009).…”

Section: Space Time and Time-space In Young Livesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spaces, Times, and Critical Moments: A Relational Time–Space Analysis of the Impacts of AIDS on Rural Youth in Malawi and Lesotho

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‘We are managing!’ Uncertain paths to respectable adulthoods in Accra, Ghana

Cited by 143 publications

References 36 publications

Expanding the scales and domains of (in)security: Youth employment in urban Zambia

Expanding the scales and domains of (in)security: Youth employment in urban Zambia

Risks and strategies of Amazonian households: Retail sales and mass-market consumption amongcaboclowomen

Spaces, Times, and Critical Moments: A Relational Time–Space Analysis of the Impacts of AIDS on Rural Youth in Malawi and Lesotho

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