Reconceptualising temporality in young lives

Exploring young people's current and future livelihoods in Aids ‐affected southern Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID8963239
AuthorsN Ansell (0000-0002-6129-7413, Centre for Human Geography Brunel University Kingston Lane, Uxbridge Middlesex UB8 3PH, corresponding author), Flora Hajdu (0000-0002-8967-0152, Department of Urban and Rural Development Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Ulls väg 28, P.O. Box 7012, SE‐750 07 Uppsala Sweden), Lorraine Van Blerk (0000-0003-1792-2354, Geography University of Dundee, Nethergate, Dundee DD1 4HN), Elsbeth Robson (0000-0003-3513-460X, Department of Geography Earth & Environmental Sciences University of Hull Hull HU6 7RX)
Year2013
Volume39
Issue3
Pages387-401
Publication date2013-10-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-2754 • E-ISSN: 1475-5661
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/tran.12041
OpenAlexW2051481706
LanguageEN
Citations received31
References cited39

In recent years, anxieties have been expressed that the impacts of southern Africa's AIDS pandemic on young people today will damage their future livelihood prospects. Geographers have been remarkably reluctant to explore young people's future livelihoods, inspired by a concern to view young people as human beings, worthy of study in their own right rather than mere human becomings, of interest only as ‘adults in the making’. Yet there is growing acknowledgement that young people, like older people, are always both ‘being and becoming’. The connections between current and future lives merit much greater attention, both because experiences and actions in childhood and youth undoubtedly shape the futures of individuals and wider society, but also because young people's thoughts and actions are so often geared to the future, and this future orientation shapes their present worlds. This paper reports on research that set out to explore links between the impacts of AIDS and young people's livelihood prospects. Intensive case study research was undertaken, combining participatory methods and life history interviews with young people aged 10–24 in two villages, one in southern Malawi and the other in the mountains of Lesotho. By theorising a temporal dimension to de Haan and Zoomers’ concept of livelihood trajectories, the paper focuses on the ways in which young people respond to both the immediate sustenance requirements of themselves and their households and their need to accrue assets for future livelihoods. Some young people's trajectories appear to be disturbed by the influence of AIDS , but with no systematic patterns. Beyond addressing empirical questions concerning the impacts of AIDS , the paper contributes to our understanding of how livelihoods are produced and to the conceptualisation of youth transitions as produced through the iteration of present and future

Acknowledgement · Agriculture · Business · Economic growth · Futures contract · Geography · Livelihood · Political science · Sociology · Sustenance · Temporality · Children's Rights and Participation · Gender Studies · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access