Global South Youth Studies Scholars (CoP)
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A Community of Practice of Global South Youth Studies Scholars (GSYSS)
Ninety percent of the world’s youth live in Africa, Latin America and the developing countries of Asia. Despite this, the field of Youth Studies, is dominated by texts that universalise the experiences of youth despite having been researched and written in Northern contexts.
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 and 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. Dr Terri-Ann Gilbert Roberts, Research Manager, Economic, Youth & Sustainable Development Directorate, The Commonwealth Secretariat, United Kingdom
Activities for the past 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 th eOxford handbook please click on the link below:
2. The first of a series of five seminar/webinars based on the contents of the book
SEMINAR 1 SOUTHERN YOUTH STUDIES AND EPISTEPRAXIS
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:
Future events
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.