Description
Book SynopsisThis book brings together recent findings from quantitative and qualitative research from across Africa to illuminate how young men and women engage with the rural economy, imagine their futures and how development policies and interventions find traction (or not) with these realities. Through framing, overview and evidence-based chapters, it provides a critical perspective on current discourse, research and development interventions around youth and rural development. It is organised around commonly-made foundational claims: that large numbers of young people are leaving rural areas; have no interest in agriculture; cannot access land; are stuck in permanent waithood; that the rural economy provides (or can provide) a wealth of opportunity; and that they can be the engine of rural transformation. It draws from existing literature and new analysis arising from several multi-country and multi-disciplinary studies, focusing on gender and other aspects of social difference. It is a major contribution to current debates and development policy about youth, agriculture and employment in rural Africa.
Table of Contents1: African youth and the rural economy: points of departure 2: Empirical windows on African rural youth 3: Are Africa’s rural youth abandoning agriculture? 4: Young people and land 5: Mobility and the rural landscape of opportunity 6: Are young people transforming the rural economy? 7: The social landscape of education and work in rural sub-Saharan Africa 8: Are rural young people stuck in waithood? 9: Young people’s imagined futures 10: Young people and the rural economy: synthesis and implications
