The Politics of Framing Youth and Doing Development in Nigeria

The research that I plan to conduct in this internship is part of my doctoral work. Through an ethnographic examination of the everyday realities of young men and women in West Africa’s largest marketplace, my PhD research will examine the relationship between livelihood opportunities, policy, and youth social action in Onitsha Eastern Nigeria. This research will ask: what kinds of external social, historical, and political forces are youth exposed to that shape their choices and life opportunities? Against the challenges that confront young people, what new forms of adaptation and resilience are being devised? How do young men and women work with and against established gendered forms of economic organization in African urban centers? How are they affected by neoliberalism and government policies? I will utilize this internship to advance the understanding of youthfulness and youth framing in Africa, arguing that effective youth intervention programming is contingent on a new conceptualization of what it means to a “youth” in Nigeria today. I argue that “being youth” in today’s Nigeria, and indeed in many parts of Africa, must be understood around certain key issues including information technology, migration, the dynamism of livelihood, among others.

Faculty Supervisor:

Blair Rutherford

Student:

Partner:

University of Edinburgh

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

Carleton University

Program: