Youth, Communication and Social Change - negotiating, navitaging and narrating youth lives in a glocal reality by Prof. Thomas Tufte Roskilde University, Denmark Presentation given at Encuentros 2010, Cambridge University, 5 August 2010

Litterature review - 3 strands of research a celebratory perspective: creativity, active involvement, e-participation and interactivity a perspective of ’critical youth’ and ’youth resistance’: youth response to disempowering situations an everyday perspective: ethnographic studies of subjectivities in the making and identity negotiation

Guiding assumptions 1.there continues to be a lack of deeper empirical explorations of youthful realities 2.most studies in this field lack trans- disciplinary perspectives in their design 3.there is a lack of action orientation in how we conduct and use our research

4 questions 1.What characterizes the lives of youth today? 2.What are some of the key contexts influencing youth lives today? 3.How do we conceptualize youth? 4.What are some of the emerging research challenges

Youth, Communication and Empowerment in Bongoland Bongo – being ’street smart’ Tanzania: –Democratic development since early 90ies –Growing civil society –3% internet access –50% mobile phone access –6% annual economic growth –6.2 HIV prevalence

Bongo Flava In Bongo things are super, that’s no lie. Even if sometimes Bongo is bitter like a sponge (…) ‘Bongo of today isn’t like in the old days: Even the old grannies become prostitutes (…) No respect, a corrupted game is played in society. No obedience to the teachings of the prophets. And pick-pockets are burned like animals Others sent to court that didn’t even steel. Who will know if the law is in people’s hands? People in Bongo, why no humanity in your hearts? (in Ekstrøm 2010: 135)

People Speaking Back? Media, Empowerment and Democracy in East Africa (MEDIeA) Target group: Young women and social inclusion Problem: Lack of voice and participation in public life Key question: How do civil society-driven media platforms contribute, or not, to young women’s engagement in participatory governance?

Case: Femina HIP Tanzanian NGO, Focuses on reproductive health and HIV/AIDS Edutainment through real life stories Media outlets include: Two large magazines, tv talk show, radio drama, interactive website Femina clubs

FEMA and other media outlets FEMA ( copies 4x pr year). Secondary school youth SiMchezo – out of school youth Tv talk show Radio drama 500 youth clubs Interactive website, mobile phone activities, etc

3 core inquiries a.Understanding the creativity with which youth engage in media and communication environments b.Attention to the socio-economic realities – a call for ethnographic immersion c.Critical and social change/resistance perspective: exploring citizen tactics

Structural Determinants and Existential Conditions The constraints of globalisation: from raised expectations to lives in ’nowherevilles’ The state’s inability to ensure existential security (freedom of fear) Structural limitations -> Nowherelives?

Instable subjectivities Arjun Appadurai: mass migration and electronic mediation of everyday life => ’a new order of instability in the production of modern subjectivity’ Young boy in South Africa: ’your future gets stuck’

Human security Human security as freedom from fear describes a condition of existence in which human dignity is realized, embracing not only physical safety but going beyond that to include meaningful participation in the life of the community, control over one’s life (…) while material sufficiency lies at the core of human security, in addition the concept encompasses non-material dimensions to form a qualitative whole. In other words, human security embraces the whole gamut of rights, civil and political, economic and social, and cultural (Thomas, 2007: )

Youth: New Social Agents living Epochal Changes los jóvenes no son cualquier juventud, porque son los que están experimentando el cambio de época en su cuerpo. O sea, los mayores tenemos un tipo de dudas y de incertidumbres que no tiene nada que ver con la incertidumbre de nuestros hijos, son otras, es de otro calibre, es de otro tipo. Mira, cuando ellos nos preguntan por cuando fuimos jóvenes…!Oye! A nosotros, nosotros tuvimos utopías geniales, nosotros tuvimos seguridades, si? Tuvimos todos los dogmas que quisimos y ellos no tienen nada que se parezca a nada de eso, ni por el lado religioso, ni por el filosófico, ni por el lado político (Martin-Barbero 2010).

Research challenges A ’glocal agenda’ – taking the changes at global level seriously into our research Youth participation in formulation of the agendas

Thank you.