Description
Book SynopsisA detailed look at young men in urban Ethiopia that reveals the impact of economic development and globalization
Trade Review"Hope Is Cut is a thoughtful, penetrating, and moving analysis of the lives of young men in Ethiopia and how their predicament sheds light on existing debates in social theory regarding time, space, temporal narratives of progress, social stratification, youth, and neoliberal capitalism in Africa. Mains’s book not only looks at an issue of great importance in the contemporary world; it also connects the study of youth to issues in broader social theory. Hope Is Cut should have a wide array of potential applications and a long shelf life."
—Jennifer Cole, Professor, Department of Comparative Human Development, University of Chicago, and author of Sex and Salvation: Imagining the Future in Madagascar
Table of ContentsSeries Editors’ Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Youth, Hope, Stratification, and Time
1 The Historical and Cultural Roots of Unemployment and Stratification in Urban Ethiopia
2 Imagining Hopeful Futures through Khat and Film
3 “We Live Like Chickens; We Are Just Eating and Sleeping”: Progress, Education, and the Temporal Struggles of Young Men
4 Working toward Hope: Youth Unemployment, Occupational Status, and Values
5 Hopeful Exchanges: Reciprocity and Changing Dimensions of Urban Stratification
6 Spatial Fixes to Temporal Problems: Migration, Social Relationships, and Work
Conclusion: Sustaining Hope in the Present and the Future
notes
references
index
