[ecrea] CFP: "Struggle and Style: African Youth Cultures Today"

“Struggle and Style: African Youth Cultures Today”

12 September 2014 University of Helsinki, Finland

Call for papers and sessions

“Struggle and Style: African Youth Cultures Today” is an international
symposium organized by the University of Helsinki’s discipline of
Social and Cultural Anthropology in cooperation with South Africa’s
Human Sciences Research Council. The symposium seeks to address
current issues concerning youth cultures across Africa from an
interdisciplinary perspective, and warmly welcomes contributions from
across the humanities and social sciences.

This symposium expands upon the themes in the previously advertised
event “Struggle and Swagg: South African Youth Today” which will form
one part of the symposium program.

“Struggle and Style” approaches youth as a flexible and often
prolonged period of life; according to conventional measures, such as
establishing an independent household, many Africans remain
reluctantly “youthful” well into their 30s. Yet even by more basic
measurements, Africa is experiencing a demographic “bulge” with
approximately sixty per cent the population under 24 years of age.
Subject to high levels of unemployment and relatively low levels of
education, Africa’s youth are alternatively depicted as a “ticking
time bomb” ready to explode if new opportunities are not made
available, and a vital asset to be harnessed in rapidly developing
economies.

It is in the cultural sphere that African youth are increasingly
exercising their economic muscle and making their voices heard. Youth
are the key producers of popular media and style, and the key market
for information and communications technology. Youth culture,
particularly popular music, has had an important economic and social
impact on African society and the global African diaspora.

It is therefore necessary to understand African youth cultures from
perspectives that move beyond the familiar narratives of youth as a
social problem or youth as an undifferentiated statistical cohort.
This symposium seeks to work towards more nuanced understandings of
the cultural lives of young people in Africa, taking into account not
just factors such as ethnic and class differences, but questions of
consumerism, gender, globalization, media, migration, music,
sexuality, spirituality, technology, pedagogy and urbanization.

We invite individual presentations (30 minutes including discussion)
and complete sessions (90 minutes). Proposals (abstracts with
approximately 250 words) with contact information should be submitted
(tostruggleandstyle /at/ gmail.com)  by 21 July 2014. Notifications of
acceptance will sent on 25 July 2014 by email. News and updates on the
program will be available on the project blog
(www.southafricanyouthtoday.com).  We have confirmed two international
keynote speakers, Alex Perullo (Bryant University, USA) and Benita
Moolman (Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa).

The symposium organizers regret that they are unavailable to provide
funds for the travel or accommodation costs of participants.

Alex Perullo is Associate Professor of Anthropology and African
Studies at Bryant University in the USA. An expert in African popular
music, youth culture, and migration, he is the author of Live from Dar
es Salaam: Popular Music and Tanzania’s Music Economy (2011), Artistic
Rights: Copyright Law for East African Musicians, Artists, Writers,
and Other Authors (2012) and articles in journals including Africa
Today and Ethnomusicology.





Tuulikki Pietilä


PhD, Docent, University Lecturer
Social and Cultural Anthropology
P.O.Box 59
FI-00014 University of Helsinki
Finland
Email:(tuulikki.pietila /at/ helsinki.fi)
Tel. +358 9 191 22645



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