Dans le droit fil du stimulant panel organisé lors du congrès Ecas (juillet 2015 à Paris), il s’agira de questionner, à la lumière de l’ethnographie et d’une ambition conceptuelle réaffirmée, les présupposés ou les attentes qui biaisent les études de plus en plus nombreuses sur la jeunesse et les jeunes en Afrique. On s’attachera à proposer de nouveaux angles d’approche qui renouvellent les thématiques et les objets de recherche, tant dans les sociétés ou les cultures contemporaines qu’anciennes, qu’elles aient été ou non marquées par les célèbres « classes » d’âge  dont l’Afrique fut un temps la terre d’élection en anthropologie.

Argument

Studies of armed conflicts, local political claims or popular insurrections on the African continent have often focused on the central role of youth in these contests, giving political mobilization in Africa a generational undertone. This literature generally seems to hesitate between the pessimism stirred by a “lost generation”, “temporary subversives, aspirant elitists” and the fascination for a fiery and creative “youth” yearning “to redress the wrongs of contemporary society and remake the world”. Here, the generation of the structural adjustment plans appears to be stuck in a paradox: facing a striking lack of opportunities, they represent the future.

This panel aims at giving a new impulse to the abundant literature aroused by “the African youth” by adopting a relational and dynamic approach, considerate of the particularities of each context and which does not presume the existence of “youth” as a distinct age group characterized by specific aspirations. Privileging a thorough ethnographic approach and attentive to the new questionings and objects this scale of observation can raise, the selected papers will aim at further developing a critical anthropology of “youth”.

After the success met by these questions at the last ECAS venue (European Conference on African Studies, Paris, 8-10July2015) we wish to enlarge this call for papers and submit a thematic issue to the review Ateliers d’anthropologie.

Submission guidelines

If you are interested, please submit an abstract of max 500 words, an explicit title as well as your name, institutional affiliation and e-mail address to the scientific editors Muriel Champy (muriel[point]champy[at]gmail[point]com) and Anne-Marie Peatrik (anne-marie[point]peatrik[at]mae[point]u-paris10[point]fr).

Timeline 

• 15 October 2015: deadline for proposal submission

• 30 October 2015: selection of the proposals
• 15 April 2016: deadline for paper submission

Scientific editors

• Muriel Champy
• Anne-Marie Peatrik