This Community of Practice aims to rectify this imbalance through offering:
1. A networking platform for youth studies scholars from the global South to convene and discuss how to overcome this hegemony of knowledge production.
2. A tangible opportunity for publication in prestigious volumes of work with high visibility that showcases the work of Southern scholars and begins to remake Youth Studies by offering Southern perspectives with global resonance.
3. A series of seminars, with sufficient depth to present and discuss topics in detail, including issues concerning youth precarity, racism, intersectionality and the navigational capacities young people require in order to thrive in contexts of inequality and hardship.
4. An opportunity to strengthen Southern theorising about young people’s practices, what we have called ‘epistepraxis’ – a realignment of theory, practice and politics.
5. A Southern charter for Global Youth studies that aims to outline the responsibilities of both Northern and Southern scholars in redressing the imbalances of youth studies scholarship.
Members
1. Prof Sharlene Swartz, Head, Inclusive Economic Development, Human Sciences Research Council; University of Fort Hare, South Africa
2. Dr Adam Cooper, Senior Research Specialist, Inclusive Economic Development, Human Sciences Research Council; Nelson Mandela University, South Africa
3. Prof Clarence Batan, Department of Sociology, University of Santo Tomas, Philippines
4. Prof Laura Kropff Causa, Researcher at the National Scientific an
d Technical Research Council and a Professor at the National University of Río Negro, Institute of Research on Cultural Diversity and Processes of Change in Bariloche, Argentina.
5. Prof Howard Williamson – Professor of European Youth Policy at the University of South Wales in the United Kingdom.
Activities for the year 2024/25
The National Research Foundation (South Africa) recently partnered with Swiss Philanthropy, Fondation Botnar and South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) to implement a research programme on young people (in urban environments) and relational wellbeing. As part of the process of ensuring good quality project proposals and building capacity in the 12 countries of the call, the partner organisations embarked on a series of webinars. Essentially the webinars seek to share, engage and provide insight on the core foci of the programme and how to improve wider scholarship and research on relational wellbeing to understand and impact positively on the wellbeing of young people in the Global South. These specific webinars aim to strengthen project teams and future community of practice members’ capacities on:
- The principles of relational wellbeing as an approach
- Theory testing in social sciences
- Approaches to foster meaningful collaboration with young people
The participants in the workshop thus included the following types of key stakeholder groups:
- Youth-led and youth-focused organisations that form part of potential project teams;
- Academics/researchers and postgraduate students working on topics related to urban young people and relational wellbeing in one or more of the thematic areas (Mental Health, Climate Change, Livelihoods, Digitalisation).
- Young people that form part of the project advisory from different civil society institutions and/or have affiliations with universities or colleges
- Academic experts on relational wellbeing and theory testing.
Workshop Programme: 20-22 August 2024
Facilitator: Dr. Angelique Wildschut, Research Director & Livelihoods Thematic Lead
Event 1: 20 August 2024, 13h00-16h00
Title: Deepening our understanding of the principles of relational wellbeing as an approach
Presenter I: Dr Shreya Jha, RWB Collaborative, India – The development of relational wellbeing as approach
Presenter II: Prof. Sharlene Swartz and Dr Angelique Wildschut, HSRC, South Africa – Using RWB to guide research practice
Event 2: 21 August 2024, 13h00-16h00
Title: Theory testing in social sciences
Presenter I: Dr Julian Eckl, University of St Gillan, Switzerland – Perspectives on theory-testing
Presenter II: Dr Candice Groenewald, HSRC, South Africa – Relational evaluation within u’GOOD
Event 3: 22 August 2024, 13h00-16h00
Title: Approaches to foster meaningful collaboration with young people
Presenter I: Dr Dorothy Ngila, NRF, South Africa – How has u’GOOD taken this up in the structure of the programme?
Presenters: Dr Sindi-Leigh McBride, Princeton University, USA and u’GOOD Youth Steering Committee Members
The workshop served as a platform for knowledge exchange, targeted support, and active engagement between the applicants (research project teams) and the experts.
The u’GOOD consortium gained valuable insights about the concerns and capacity development needs of the applicants. Moving forward, the consortium will explore how best to structure the three-year research program to ensure:
- Scientific rigour in both the research proposals and implementation of the research programmes in the different countries.
- Operationalisation of relational approaches to working with minors (under 18) from an ethical standpoint.
- English as a language is used to enhance relational interactions and project implementation, rather than hinder engagements in contexts where English is not commonly spoken.
- Equitable distribution of resources to countries that may require further capacity
- Meaningful engagement of young people as emerging researchers
Activities for the year 2022/23
Event 1 – On Friday the 30th of June 2023 the editors of the Oxford University Press Handbook of Global South Youth Studies hosted a book launch and seminar at the International Sociological Association conference in Melbourne, Australia. The book launch included four presentations by chapters authors of the handbook, including:
Home, Belonging and Africanity in the Film Black Panther
Ragi Bashonga
Youth Protagonism in Urban India
Roshni K. Nuggehalli
Rural Indonesian Youths’ Conceptions of Success
Rara Sekar Larasati, Bronwyn E. Wood, and Ben K. C. Laksana
A Southern Charter for a Global Youth Studies to Benefit the World
Sharlene Swartz
The four presentations were followed by an engaging audience discussion. Pamphlets that documented the abstracts of all of the book’s chapters and a few copies of the book were distributed amongst the audience. This session, which was well attended, formed part of the programme for Research Committee 34, the Sociology of Youth, at the conference.
Event 2 – On the 1st of July 2023 the four editors of the handbook met at Oaks Southbank Hotel in Melbourne Australia to reflect on the successes and challenges of the handbook and to plan the way forward in promoting the current publication and to continue this area of scholarship. Laura Kropff-Causa pointed out that the impact of the handbook has been limited in Latin America due to linguistic issues. It was agreed that the editors would try to raise funds and find appropriate expertise to translate the book into Spanish and French. A proposal for a second publication, focusing on little known scholars from the global south was discussed. Finally, a plan was made to interact with deputy presidents of RC34 Sociology of Youth who represent areas of the global south, inviting them to host webinars that extend the work initiated by the handbook.
Activities for the year 2021/22
1. Publication of an edited handbook
Swartz, S., Cooper, A., Batan, C., & Kropff Causa, L. (Eds.) (2021). The Oxford Handbook of Global South Youth. Oxford University Press.
To download the abstract of the Oxford handbook please click on the link below:
2. The first of a series of five seminar/webinars based on the contents of the book
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYpfu-qqDspHNBOwRgM6aIpbhExeGC4AdD3
Wednesday 2nd March 2022 [Time: 11:00-13:30 UTC] Chair: Dr Terri-Ann Gilbert Roberts
Discussants: Prof Dan Woodman, TR Ashworth Professor in Sociology, University of Melbourne, Australia; and Prof Tracy Shildrick, Professor of Inequalities, Newcastle University, UK – editors of the Journal of Youth Studies
Speakers:
• A Global Youth Studies to benefit the world: Realigning theory, practice and justice – Prof Sharlene Swartz, Human Sciences Research Council, University of Fort Hare, South Africa
• Youth in the Global South: Why their experiences matter – Dr Adam Cooper, Human Sciences Research Council, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa
• Youth studies, its forms and differences amongst the South – Prof Ana Miranda, Academic Director, FLACSO; National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET); University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Youth studies, its forms and differences between the North and South – Prof Clarence Batan, Department of Sociology, University of Santo Tomas, Philippines
3. Publication of a charter of Global South Youth studies as a guide for how to centre scholars from the global South
Swartz, S. (2021). A Southern Charter for a Global Youth Studies to Benefit the World. In: Swartz, S., Cooper, A, Batan, C. and Kropff Causa, L. (Eds). The Oxford Handbook of Global South Youth Studies. (pp. 607-621). New York, USA: Oxford University Press.
To download the document please click on the link below:
AN HSRC COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE SEMINAR SERIES
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The Oxford Handbook of Global South Youth Studies addresses geo-political inequality by showcasing the work of Southern scholars and begins to remake Youth Studies by offering Southern perspectives with global resonance. Please join us for a seminar series to broaden and deepen Southern scholarship about, with and for young people, and to grow a community of practice begun through the publication of this handbook.
Contributors to the handbook and seminars are from various regions of the Global South, including from the Diaspora, Indigenous and Aboriginal communities, and comprise senior and emerging scholars, writing with others from the South, and sometimes with Northern scholars, in an intentional community of practice.
An ebook of abstracts is available along with details ofIn these seminars, held quarterly, the main themes of the handbook: what the editors have called ‘epistepraxis’ – the importance of formulating knowledge-based practices based on Southern experiences of life and politics; thinking through theory, method and representation in doing so; reimagining and learning about concepts such as personhood, intersectionality, violences, de- and post-coloniality, consciousness, precarity, modernities, ontological insecurity, navigational capacities, collective agency and emancipation from Southern contexts; and expanding or re-theorising these concepts for Southern, Northern and Global contexts.
Contributors to the handbook where the book may be obtained.