L. van Blerk

Participatory feedback and dissemination with and for children: Reflections from research with young migrants in southern Africa

Abstract In this contribution we discuss the process of feedback and dissemination that we adopted following research with children affected by AIDS in southern Africa. We outline our reasons for engaging in detailed feedback and dissemination, distinguishing between active or passive processes and discuss the participatory methods we adopted. Through our reflections we consider feedback as an obligation to participants and dissemination as a potential agent of social change. In addition we evaluate the effectiveness with which we were able to truly incorporate the voices of young people in our dissemination and relinquish control of the outcomes to make them available for action among policy-makers. In conclusion we highlight that active dissemination, although not able to guarantee that research recommendations will be acted upon, at the very least opens dialogue and enhances understanding among those able to implement action.

AIDS, mobility and commercial sex in Ethiopia: Implications for policy

Abstract Since the emergence of the AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa, male mobility has been highlighted as one of the reasons for the spread of the disease with men employing the services of commercial sex workers while away from home. However, sex workers’ mobility and the implications of this for their access to prevention services, has largely been ignored. This paper, based on multi-method qualitative research with 60 young sex workers in two Ethiopian towns, reveals that sex workers are highly mobile, moving in order to attract a wider or different client base, for adventure and to conceal illnesses which might be associated with AIDS. In addition, sex workers are affected by restrictions on their movements, with girls working in bars and red-light areas having little free time to access projects. This paper advocates that policy approaches need to take account of this mobility in three ways: first, by exploring ways for girls to access information and maintain contact with support structures while moving between places of work; second, by building the capacity of sex workers to take greater control over decision-making in their day-to-day lives and third, by developing outreach strategies for taking services into bars and red-light areas.

Diversity and Difference in the Everyday Lives of Ugandan Street Children: The Significance of Age and Gender for Understanding the Use of Space

Abstract Childhood is characterised by diversity and difference across and within societies. Street children have a unique relationship to the urban environment evident through their use of the city. The everyday geographies that street children produce are diversified through the spaces they frequent and the activities they engage in. Drawing on a range of children-centred qualitative methods, this article focuses on street childrens use of urban space in Kampala, Uganda. The article demonstrates the importance of considering variables such as gender and age in the analysis of street childrens socio-spatial experiences, which, to date, have rarely been considered in other accounts of street childrens lives. In addition the article highlights the need for also including street childrens individuality and agency into understanding their use of space. The article concludes by arguing for policies to be sensitive to the diversity that characterises street childrens lives and calls for a more nuanced app...Abstract Childhood is characterised by diversity and difference across and within societies. Street children have a unique relationship to the urban environment evident through their use of the city. The everyday geographies that street children produce are diversified through the spaces they frequent and the activities they engage in. Drawing on a range of children-centred qualitative methods, this article focuses on street childrens use of urban space in Kampala, Uganda. The article demonstrates the importance of considering variables such as gender and age in the analysis of street childrens socio-spatial experiences, which, to date, have rarely been considered in other accounts of street childrens lives. In addition the article highlights the need for also including street childrens individuality and agency into understanding their use of space. The article concludes by arguing for policies to be sensitive to the diversity that characterises street childrens lives and calls for a more nuanced approach where policies are designed to accommodate street childrens age and gender differences, and their individual needs, interests and abilities.

Learning from young people about their lives: using participatory methods to research the impacts of AIDS in southern Africa

Methods of participatory research have become popular among childrens geographers as they are believed to enable young people to speak openly about their lives in unthreatening contexts. In this article, we reflect on our experience of using participatory methods to explore the sensitive topic of (indirect) impacts of AIDS on young peoples livelihoods in Malawi and Lesotho. We examine how different methodological approaches generate varying knowledges of childrens lived realities; challenges of using ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ research assistants; the place of group-based approaches in participatory research; and ethical issues. We suggest that researchers of young peoples lives should take full account of the relationship between epistemology and methodology in selecting and employing methods appropriate to particular research questions.

Fears for the future: the incommensurability of securitisation and in/securities among southern African youth

Abstract Over the past two decades, southern Africa has experienced both exceptionally high AIDS prevalence and recurrent food shortages. International institutions have responded to these challenges by framing them as security concerns that demand urgent intervention. Young people are implicated in both crises and drawn into the securitisation discourse as agents (of risk and protection) and as (potential) victims. However, the concepts of security deployed by global institutions and translated into national policy do not reflect the ways in/security is experienced ‘on the ground’ as a subjective and embodied orientation to the future. This paper brings work on youth temporalities to bear on social and cultural geographies of in/security and securitisation. It reports on research that explored insecurities among young people in Lesotho and Malawi. It concludes that, by focusing on ‘threats’ in isolation, and seeking to protect ‘society’ as an abstract aggregate of people, global securitisation discourses fail either to engage with the complex contextualised ways in which marginalised people experience insecurity or to proffer the political responses that are needed if those felt insecurities are to be addressed. However, while securitisation is problematic, in/security is nonetheless an important element in young people’s orientation to the future.

Homeless People: Street Children in Africa

In the absence of a safe place to live, some young people take to living on the streets. In many African cities, this can in part be attributed to large-scale structural causes that have an impact on the condition of poverty in families/communities. Living on the streets is seen as exciting and an escape from the social problems that stem from poverty in daily life. Paradoxically, many of the issues faced at home are replicated and magnified on the streets. The street becomes ‘home’, and private activities are conducted in public space. Particular spaces take on new meaning for those that appropriate them, and young people living on the streets produce urban space in a variety of ways to fulfil their daily needs. This, however, does not mean they are completely disconnected from their families because many young people move between the home and the street.