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A Global Generation? Youth Studies in a Postcolonial World

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  • 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
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    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.
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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. 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.

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