Dealing with diversity : African youth research and the potential of comparative approaches

Title data

Philipps, Joschka:
Dealing with diversity : African youth research and the potential of comparative approaches.
In: Journal of Youth Studies. Vol. 17 (2014) Issue 10 . - pp. 1362-1377.
ISSN 1469-9680
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2014.918252

Official URL:

Abstract in another language

While African youth now feature among the most-researched phenomena in African Studies and Africa-focused social sciences, scholarship continues to shy away from the field's most daunting challenge. As the oversized analytical category ‘youth’ cannot tame the diversity and the ambiguity of the phenomenon ‘youth’, it remains difficult to develop tangible theories and reduce the fuzziness that characterises the current debate. In this paper, I review the most recent advances in the field of African youth studies and outline three comparative approaches to respond to the methodological challenges of diversity and ambiguity. Demonstrating how these comparative approaches can be used for youth-specific inquiries on different levels, I argue that comparison is effective in urging researchers to connect theory, methodology and empirical data more explicitly, to pay particular attention to the respective contexts that mark young people's attitudes and behaviour, and to address diversity as a puzzle rather than a ready-made answer.

Further data

Item Type:	Article in a journal
Refereed:	Yes
Keywords:	Youth; ethnicity; generation; identity; youth culture
Institutions of the University:	Faculties Faculties > Faculty of Cultural Studies Faculties > Faculty of Cultural Studies > Chair Sociology of Africa Faculties > Faculty of Cultural Studies > Chair Sociology of Africa > Chair Sociology of Africa - Univ.-Prof. Dr. Jana Hönke
Result of work at the UBT:	No
DDC Subjects:	300 Social sciences 300 Social sciences > 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology 300 Social sciences > 320 Political science
Date Deposited:	23 Aug 2024 08:56
Last Modified:	23 Aug 2024 08:56
URI:	https://eref.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/90254