Schulpen; Davids; Verhoeven

Urban Youth: Actors of Change; An exploration into everyday life of deprived urban youth

Young people are often seen by others as being inactive, problematic and non-receptive to positive developments. Many youngsters themselves perceive their lives and futures as a given – almost as predetermined. However, there are many examples of young people willing to improve their own situation and that of their community. Many credit themselves with the ability (and will) to influence their future and to change situations. Individually, they feel responsible for the course of their own life and, as a collective, they share a belief of having the power to produce effects by collective actions. Their sense of agency makes them act more consciously based on their norms and values as a motivating force. The study on ‘Youth as Actors of Change’, based on participatory research, gives voice to the feelings, perceptions and future perspectives of everyday life as envisaged by young people themselves. While emphasising that young people should also be held accountable and they should put more effort into trying to understand the adults, this study criticises policies solely directed at the difficulties of young people and which depart from the notion that young people may be potentially problematic, or worse, ‘potential criminals’. Instead, it might be better to concentrate on young people’s ideas and capacities as valuable contributions to community development. In order to develop their sense of being able to generate change, it is imperative that young people are shown to be taken seriously, that they are trusted, that they are given attention and affection, and that they are encouraged so they receive recognition for who they are and for what they do. Therefore a better understanding of what factors influence today’s youth in deploying their capacities to generate desired changes, adjusted to them and their environment is needed. This book intends to contribute to that much needed insight and knowledge. It does so based on research programme organized by Cordaid and CIDIN ( Radboud University) and executed by thirty-one young researchers from both Dutch and local universities in seven big cities. In collaboration with several NGOs, research was carried out in Ethiopia, Peru, Cameroon, the Philippines, the Netherlands, Congo DRC and El Salvador. A bottom-up approach was taken in order to learn from the young people themselves. Furthermore, based on the outcomes of this research, Cordaid set up a fund for innovative activities planned and realized by the young people in the seven countries involved demonstrating that is possible to work on development with youngsters as actors of change.