Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

Based on PAR with African slum dweller collectives, this work analyses the contributions of marginalised youth to urban social movements’ theory and practice. It proposes a tripartite conceptualisation of youth and links it to social movements literature and action towards alternative urban futures.

Paper long abstract

In the past decades, specialised scholarship in social movements has grown, furthering the debate around definitions, modalities of action, contextualisation, and comparison. This body of literature is yet to grapple with the subjective narratives and potential of marginalised youth as emancipatory actors within social movements, particularly from urban Africa. Conversely, questions around youth continue to captivate scholars’ imaginations - with the lives of the young and marginalised in cities studied through multiple dimensions (economic, social, political, intersectional), and a diversity of lenses (conceptual, categorical, phenomenological, developmental, ideological). But there persists a lingering characterisation of youth, and particularly African youth, both as a developmental stage (a time-in-itself), and as a paradoxical reality (‘makers or breakers’). This paper moves beyond work to date to examine marginalised youth’s participation in social movements in urban Africa, and the causes that mobilise them. Through the analysis of findings from participatory action research processes with young co-researchers from slum dweller collectives in two African cities, this work highlights the multiple and diverse contributions of marginalised youth to urban social movements’ theory and practice. Based on a co-produced, practice-based analysis, this work proposes a tripartite conceptualisation of youth; as a dialectical becoming (as opposed to a linear process); as a possibility (beyond a phenomenon or a reality), and as a complex time-for-itself (rather than a paradoxical time-in-itself). Through studying youth’s urban experiences and collective mobilisations to improve their realities, we then link this conceptualisation to social movements literature and action towards alternative urban futures.