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‘When the Numbers Stop Adding’: Imagining Futures in Perilous Presents Among Youth in Nairobi Ghettos

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  • Naomi Stapele

    (International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) at Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR))

Abstract

Studying the aspirations of young men, in Mathare, Nairobi, highlights their social becoming in contexts in which they incessantly risk social and physical death. Taking aspiration as a relational concept brings into view the temporal and spatial interactions between different aspirations and how these connect to emerging and future pathways of these young men. The ensuing relationalities at play are analysed through their context-bound negotiations of dominant gender norms to elucidate how these inform their social navigation towards male respectability, now and in the future. Adding the dimension of positionality here is useful to bring out how individual negotiations of gender norms in space and over time allows a nuanced view on situated entanglements of aspirations, pathways and dominant discourses and how these convolute and intensify in particular decision-making processes. The analyses are based on longitudinal ethnographic research with youth gangs in Nairobi for four months annually on average since 2005.

Suggested Citation

  • Naomi Stapele, 2021. "‘When the Numbers Stop Adding’: Imagining Futures in Perilous Presents Among Youth in Nairobi Ghettos," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(1), pages 130-146, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:eurjdr:v:33:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1057_s41287-020-00329-1
    DOI: 10.1057/s41287-020-00329-1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Peris S. Jones & Wangui Kimari & Kavita Ramakrishnan, 2017. "‘Only the people can defend this struggle’: the politics of the everyday, extrajudicial executions and civil society in Mathare, Kenya," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(154), pages 559-576, October.
    2. James Copestake & Laura Camfield, 2010. "Measuring Multidimensional Aspiration Gaps: A Means to Understanding Cultural Aspects of Poverty," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 28(5), pages 617-633, September.
    3. Roy Huijsmans & Nicola Ansell & Peggy Froerer, 2021. "Introduction: Development, Young People, and the Social Production of Aspirations," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(1), pages 1-15, February.
    4. Lisa Rodan & Roy Huijsmans, 2021. "“Our Generation…” Aspiration, Desire, and Generation as Discourse Among Highly Educated, Portuguese, Post-austerity Migrants in London," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(1), pages 147-164, February.
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    1. Nicola Ansell & Peggy Froerer & Roy Huijsmans, 2022. "Young People’s Aspirations in an Uncertain World: Taking Control of the Future?," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 27(4), pages 795-802, December.
    2. Charlie Rumsby, 2021. "The God School: Informal Christian Education and Emerging Aspirations Among De Facto Stateless Children Living in Cambodia," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(1), pages 89-108, February.

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