Books

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Securitizing Youth: Young People’s Role in the Global Peace & Security Agenda (2021)

The recent proliferation of international activity on youth, peace and security (YPS) has been motivated by demographic imperatives – today’s generation of youth is larger than it has been at any other time in human history – as well as geopolitical realities – more than 600 million of those youngsters live in conflict-affected regions. The global YPS agenda has further been driven by moral panics over the purportedly growing threat of radicalization of globally-connected but marginalized youth by media-savvy extremist groups. This volume counters untested assumptions on these issues by sharing empirical findings on youth’s engagement in the wide range of experiences related to the peace and security field. Lessons learned seek to inform the global YPS agenda so that it better responds to on-the-ground realities, hence promoting more sustainable and inclusive approaches to long-lasting peace.

Children and Forced Migration: Durable Solutions During Transient Years (2016; with Elzbieta M. Gozdziak)

Given the very high proportion of children and youth among displaced populations worldwide, and the particular challenges and opportunities they must confront, their experiences, needs and aspirations must be investigated and factored into relevant policy and practice. Conceived as a follow up to the earlier Children and Migration: At the Crossroads of Resiliency and Vulnerability (Palgrave, 2010), this volume draws on empirical field research and robust policy analyses of cases of child displacement across the globe. Findings seek to inform forced migration programming so that it better responds to the age-differentiated priorities of displaced communities, hence promoting more sustainable durable solutions. These dynamics are shown to have a significant impact on the way in which access to material assets, education, employment opportunities, political participation and other key resources is negotiated among the youngest members of displaced groups.

African Childhoods: Education, Development, Peacebuilding and the Youngest Continent (2012)

With 70 per cent of its people under the age of 30, Africa is the world’s youngest continent. African youngsters have been largely characterized as either vulnerable victims of the frequent humanitarian crises that plague their homelands, or as violent militarized youth and ‘troubled’ gang members. Young people’s contributions to processes of educational provision, peace building and participatory human development in Africa are often ignored. While acknowledging the profound challenges associated with growing up in an environment of uncertainty and deprivation, African Childhoods sheds light on African children’s often constructive engagement with a variety of societal conditions, adverse or otherwise, and their ability to positively influence their own lives and those of others.

Children and Migration: At the Crossroads of Resiliency and Vulnerability (2010; with Elzbieta M. Gozdziak)

Children and Migration offers a comprehensive analysis of the increasingly common phenomenon of child migration from the perspective of the children themselves. Situating child migration at the nexus of resiliency and vulnerability, the volume focuses on the local conditions that frame child migrants’ lives as well as analyzes the broader issues of poverty, (under)development, conflict, and displacement that mark the movement of children within and across national borders. 

The Legacy of Hurricane Mitch: Lessons from Post-Disaster Reconstruction in Honduras (2009)

Around the world disaster vulnerability is on the rise. The incidence and intensity of disasters have increased in recent decades with lives being shattered and resources being destroyed across broad geographic regions each year. The Legacy of Hurricane Mitch offers a comprehensive analysis of the immediate and long-term consequences of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras. Based on longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork and environmental assessments, this volume illustrates the importance of adopting an approach to disaster research and practice that places “natural” trigger events within their political, cultural, and socio-economic contexts. The contributors make a compelling case against post-disaster recovery efforts that limit themselves to alleviating the symptoms, rather than confronting the root causes of the vulnerability that prefigured the disaster.