Youth in the Global South: An Introduction

Abstract

The introduction to this edited book explains the rationale and main arguments for this collection of chapters. The aim of this book is to contribute to the development of new agendas in youth research that address the roots of inequality and highlight possibilities for social change, as well as promoting a democratisation of the field of youth studies. While there is a burgeoning interest in research from the Global South, the production of scientific knowledge in the social sciences is still skewed towards the Global North. To address this issue, the authors argue for the need of a conceptual and empirical space of invention and experimentation in youth studies that moves the research agenda beyond the universal conceptualisations from the Global North to include new, and old, ideas, perspectives and stories about and from young people in the Global South. In this chapter, the authors also offer theoretical sketches of what the Global South means, and what the field of sociology of youth looks like from the Global South. The chapter concludes with an analytical explanation of each of the 17 chapters that compose the epistemological mosaic offered in this book.