African Youth Cultures in a Globalized World

All over the world, there is growing concern about the ramifications of globalization, late-modernity and general global social and economic restructuring on the lives and futures of young people. Bringing together a wide body of research to reflect on youth responses to social change in Africa, this volume shows that while young people in the region face extraordinary social challenges in their everyday lives, they also continue to devise unique ways to reinvent their difficult circumstances and prosper in the midst of seismic global and local social changes. Contributors from Africa and around the world cover a wide range of topics on African youth cultures, exploring the lives of young people not necessarily as victims, but as active social players in the face of a shifting, late-modernist civilization. With empirical cases and varied theoretical approaches, the book offers a timely scholarly contribution to debates around globalization and its implications and impacts for Africa's youth.

“'This volume provides engaging and ground-breaking analyses of the intersections of African youth experiences and a hegemonic global neo-liberal agenda. The chapters illuminate the myriad socioeconomic paradoxes that Africa's youth confront in an age of globalization and brings a much needed Africanist perspective to the growing discourse on youth cultures.'Bonny Ibhawoh, McMaster University, Canada 'This important, timely reader effectively responds to current social and cultural locations of African youth who face multiple marginalizations imposed by neoliberal globalization and its attachments of declining educational and job prospects. It certainly achieves a much needed scholarly intervention that critically but admirably juxtaposes contextual realities with people's survivability strategies that refuse the usual portrayals of victimhood and powerlessness.' Ali A. Abdi, The University of British Columbia, Canada 'The fallout of the 2008 economic crisis touched lives across the globe, but the chapters of this book document, with rich, original research, just how profound the impact has been on young people in Africa. These insights, drawn from case studies across the continent, show that youth have responded with resilience and ingenuity, activism and anger. African Youth Cultures in a Globalized World is an excellent contribution and is highly recommended.'David Pratten, Oxford University, UK”

’This volume provides engaging and ground-breaking analyses of the intersections of African youth experiences and a hegemonic global neo-liberal agenda. The chapters illuminate the myriad socioeconomic paradoxes that Africa’s youth confront in an age of globalization and brings a much needed Africanist perspective to the growing discourse on youth cultures.’ Bonny Ibhawoh, McMaster University, Canada ’This important, timely reader effectively responds to current social and cultural locations of African youth who face multiple marginalizations imposed by neoliberal globalization and its attachments of declining educational and job prospects. It certainly achieves a much needed scholarly intervention that critically but admirably juxtaposes contextual realities with people’s survivability strategies that refuse the usual portrayals of victimhood and powerlessness.’ Ali A. Abdi, The University of British Columbia, Canada ’The fallout of the 2008 economic crisis touched lives across the globe, but the chapters of this book document, with rich, original research, just how profound the impact has been on young people in Africa. These insights, drawn from case studies across the continent, show that youth have responded with resilience and ingenuity, activism and anger. African Youth Cultures in a Globalized World is an excellent contribution and is highly recommended.’ David Pratten, Oxford University, UK

Dr Paul Ugor is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Illinois State University, Bloomington-Normal. His research interests are in African Literatures and Cultures, Postcolonial Studies, and New Media Cultures in the Global South. Lord C. Mawuko-Yevugah is currently based in Accra, Ghana and teaches global development policy and comparative political economy at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA). He is the author of Reinventing Development: Aid Reform and Technologies of Governance in Ghana (Ashgate, July 2014).

All over the world, there is growing concern about the ramifications of globalization, late-modernity and general global social and economic restructuring on the lives and futures of young people. Bringing together a wide body of research to reflect on youth responses to social change in Africa, this volume shows that while young people in the region face extraordinary social challenges in their everyday lives, they also continue to devise unique ways to reinvent their difficult circumstances and prosper in the midst of seismic global and local social changes.Contributors from Africa and around the world cover a wide range of topics on African youth cultures, exploring the lives of young people not necessarily as victims, but as active social players in the face of a shifting, late-modernist civilization. With empirical cases and varied theoretical approaches, the book offers a timely scholarly contribution to debates around globalization and its implications and impacts for Africa's youth.

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