Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Mapping Hope: How Do Vulnerable Youth Locate Hope in Informal Settlements?

  • Published:
Urban Forum Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper contributes to lines of scholarship that both seek to interrogate the notion of hope within African urbanization as well as the integration of the needs of urban youth. It investigates drawn cognitive maps of informal settlements and accompanying essays authored by 123 vulnerable youth living in Lusaka’s informal settlements to better understand how the participants locate hope in their surroundings. The analysis suggests that there are several social-spatial anchors of hope in the city’s informal settlements that simultaneously orient their day-to-day lives and long-term aspirations. These locations and their associated aspirations are mitigated both by the larger social and physical contexts. These findings suggest that the youth locate hope and despair throughout their settlements in discrete locations and also see hope as a group effort. The findings are also used to make recommendations for how urban managers can use this information to support the hopes of informal settlement youth.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Blades, M., Blaut, J. M., Darvizeh, Z., Elguea, S., Sowden, S., Soni, D., Spencer, C., Stea, D., Surajpaul, R., & Uttal, D. (1998). A cross-cultural study of young children’s mapping abilities. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 23(2), 269–277.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blaut, J. M., Stea, D., Spencer, C., & Blades, M. (2003). Mapping as a cultural and cognitive universal. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 93(1), 165–185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Blerk, L. (2013). New street geographies: the impact of urban governance on the mobilities of Cape Town’s street youth. Urban Studies, 50(February), 556–573.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: a social critique of the judgement of taste. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks, K. M., Filmer, D. P., Fox, M. L., Goyal, A., Mengistae, T. A., Premand, P., Ringold, D., Sharma, S., & Zorya, S. (2014). Youth employment in sub-Saharan Africa: Overview (English). Africa development forum. Washington DC: World Bank Group.

  • Chigunta, F. (2001). Understanding Exclusion and Creating Value: A Look at Youth Livelihoods in Informal Urban Settlements in Zambia. Oxford: International Development Research Centre.

  • Chigunta, F., & Mwanza, V. (2016). Measuring and promoting youth entrepreneurship in Zambia. In K. V. Gough & T. Langevang (Eds.), Young entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chigunta, F., Gough, K. V., & Langevang, T. (2016). Young entrepreneurs in Lusaka: overcoming constraints through ingenuity and social entrepreneurship. In K. V. Gough & T. Langevang (Eds.), Young entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cobbinah, P. B., Poku-Boansi, M., & Asomani-Boateng, R. (2016). Urbanisation of hope or despair? Urban planning dilemma in Ghana. Urban Forum, 27(4), 415–432.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Darkwah, A. K. (2013). Keeping hope alive: an analysis of training opportunities for Ghanaian youth in the emerging oil and gas industry. International Development Planning Review, 35(29), 119–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Day, C., and Evans, R. (2015). “Caring Responsibilities, Change and Transitions in Young People’s Family Lives in Zambia.” Journal of Comparative Family Studies XLVI, (1), 137–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eckstein, S. (1990). Urbanization revisited: inner-city slum of hope and squatter settlement of despair. World Development, 18(2), 165–181.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fanelli, C. W., Musarandega, R., & Chawanda, L. (2007). Child participation in Zimbabwe’s National Action Plan for orphans and other vulnerable children: progress, challenges and possibilities. Children, Youth and Environments, 17(3), 122–145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finn, B. (2018). Quietly chasing Kigali: young men and the intolerance of informality in Rwanda’s capital city. Urban Forum, 29(2), 205–218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forbes-Biggs, K., & Maartens, Y. (2012). Adolescent girls at risk: the GIRRL program as a capacity-building initiative in South Africa. Children, Youth and Environments, 22(2), 234–248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuh, D. (2012). The prestige economy: veteran clubs and Youngmen’s competition in Bamenda, Cameroon. Urban Forum, 23(4), 501–526.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs, A., Sikweyiya, Y., & Jewkes, R. (2014). ‘Men value their dignity’: securing respect and identity construction in urban informal settlements in South Africa. Global Health Action, 7(1), 23676.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gough, K. V. (2008a). Youth and the home. In K. T. Hansen, A. L. Dalsgaard, K. V. Gough, U. A. Madsen, K. Valentin, & N. Wildermuth (Eds.), Youth and the city in the global south. Indiana University Press.

  • Gough, K. V. (2008b). Moving around: the social and spatial mobility of youth in Lusaka. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 90(3), 243–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gough, K.V., Langevang, T. and Owusu, G. (2013). Youth employment in a globalising world. International Development Planning Review, 35(2), 91–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gough, K. V., Chigunta, F., & Langevang, T. (2016). Expanding the scales and domains of (in)security: youth employment in urban Zambia. Environment and Planning A, 48(2), 348–366.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Government of Zambia. (2006). Vision 2030: a prosperous middle-income nation by 2030.

    Google Scholar 

  • Government of Zambia. (2007, 2014). Zambia demographic and health survey. Central Statistics Office.

  • Halseth, G., & Doddridge, J. (2000). Children’s cognitive mapping: a potential tool for neighbourhood planning. Environment and Planning. B, Planning & Design, 27(4), 565–582.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, K. T. (1997). Keeping House in Lusaka. New York: Columbia University Press.

  • Hansen, K. T. (2008). Localities and sites of youth agency in Lusaka. In K. T. Hansen, A. L. Dalsgaard, K. V. Gough, U. A. Madsen, K. Valentin, & N. Wildermuth (Eds.), Youth and the city in the global south. Indiana University Press.

  • Harris, J. (2015). Accra’s unregulated market-oriented sanitation strategy: problems and opportunity. In A. Allen, A. Lampis, & M. Swilling (Eds.), Untamed urbanisms. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, J. (2016). Joint action in Nairobi’s informal production clusters. International Development Planning Review, 38(3), 317–337.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, J. (2017). Vulnerable youth’s perspectives and priorities for informal settlements: photovoice evidence from Lusaka, Zambia. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 38(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X17709914.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kabiru, C. W., Mojola, S. A., Beguy, D., & Okigbo, C. (2013). Growing up at the “margins”: concerns, aspirations, and expectations of young people living in Nairobi’s slums. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 23, 81–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kamete, A. Y. (2010). Defending illicit livelihoods: youth resistance in Harare’s contested spaces. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 34, 55–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langevang, T. (2007). “Movements in Tie and Space: Using Multiple Methods in Research with Young People in Accra, Ghana.” Children’s Geographies 5(3), 267–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langevang, T. (2008a). “We are managing!” uncertain paths to respectable adulthoods in Accra, Ghana. Geoforum, 39(6), 2039–2047.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langevang, T. (2008b). Claiming place: the production of young men’s street meeting places in Accra, Ghana. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 90(3), 227–242.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langevang, T., Namatovu, R., & Dawa, S. (2012). Beyond necessity and opportunity entrepreneurship: motivations and aspirations of young entrepreneurs in Uganda. International Development Planning Review, 34, 439–460.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Literat, I. (2013). Participatory mapping with urban youth: the visual elicitation of socio-spatial research data. Learning, Media and Technology, 38(2), 198–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mabala, R. (2011). Youth and “the hood”—livelihoods and neighbourhoods. Environment and Urbanization, 23(1), 157–181.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mains, D. (2012). Hope is cut: youth, unemployment, and the future in urban Ethiopia. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

  • Misturelli, F., & Heffernan, C. (2011). The language of poverty: an exploration of the narratives of the poor. Sustainable Development, 19, 206–222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mniki, N., & Rosa, S. (2007). Heroes in action: child advocates in South Africa. Children, Youth and Environments, 17(3), 179–197.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mugisha, F., Arinaitwe-Mugisha, J., & Hagembe, B. (2003). Alcohol, substance and drug use among urban slum adolescents in Nairobi, Kenya. CITIES, 20(4).

  • Mumba, M. H. (2016). Social capital among young entrepreneurs in Zambia. In K. V. Gough & T. Langevang (Eds.), Young entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers, G. A. (2006). The unauthorized city: late colonial Lusaka and postcolonial geography. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 27(3), 289–308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nairn, K., Sligo, J., & Freeman, C. (2006). Polarizing participation in local government: which young people are included and excluded? Children, Youth and Environments, 16(2), 248–271.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nuissl, H., & Heinrichs, D. (2013). Slums: perspectives on the definition, the appraisal and the management of an urban phenomenon. DIE ERDE, 144(2), 105–116.

    Google Scholar 

  • Odendaal, N. (2012). Reality check: planning education in the African urban century. Cities, 29(3), 174–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Owusu, G., Agyei-mensah, S., & Lund, R. (2008). Slums of hope and slums of despair: mobility and livelihoods in Nima, Accra. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift Norwegian Journal of Geography, 62, 180–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parnell, S., & Pieterse, E. (2016). Translational global praxis: rethinking methods and modes of African urban research. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 40, 236–246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, A. S., & Kuperus, T. (2016). Mobilizing the faithful: organizational autonomy, visionary pastors, and citizenship in South Africa and Zambia. African Affairs, 115(459), 318–341.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phiri, I. (2003). President Frederick J. T. Chiluba of Zambia: the christian nation and democracy. Journal of Religion in Africa Expressions of Christianity in Zambia, 33(4), 401–428.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pieterse, E. (2011). Grasping the unknowable: coming to grips with African urbanisms. Social Dynamics, 37, 5–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rakodi, C. (2006). Relationships of power and place: the social construction of African cities. Geoforum, 37, 312–317.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richter, L. M., Panday, S., Swart, T. M., & Norris, S. A. (2009). Adolescents in the city: material and social living conditions in Johannesburg–Soweto, South Africa. Urban Forum, 20(3), 319–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Santo, C. A., Ferguson, N., & Trippel, A. (2010). Engaging urban youth through technology: the youth neighborhood mapping initiative. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 30, 52–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlyter, A. (1999). Recycled inequalities: youth and gender in George compound, Zambia. Uppsala: Nordiska Africainstitutet.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soini, K. (2001). Exploring human dimensions of multifunctional landscapes through mapping and map-making. Landscape and Urban Planning, 57, 225–239.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stokes, C. (1962). A theory of slums. Land Economics, 8(3), 187–197.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Teixeira, S. (2015). It seems like no one cares: participatory photo mapping to understand youth perspectives on property vacancy. Journal of Adolescent Research, 30(3), 390–414.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thieme, T. (2010). Youth, waste and work in Mathare: whose business and whose politics? Environment and Urbanization, 22, 333–352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UN HABITAT. (2007). Zambia: Lusaka urban profile.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNFPA. (2014). State of the world population. United Nations Population Fund.

  • United Nations. (2016a). Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Retrieved from: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld. Accessed 28 June 2017.

  • United Nations. (2016b). New urban agenda. United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) Quito, 17–20 October 2016.

  • Watson, V. (2009). Seeing from the south: refocusing urban planning on the Globe’s central urban issues. Urban Studies, 46(11), 2259–2275.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Regional and City Planning, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    John C. Harris

  2. Landscape Architecture, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    Sarah Little

Authors
  1. John C. Harris
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sarah Little
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John C. Harris.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Harris, J.C., Little, S. Mapping Hope: How Do Vulnerable Youth Locate Hope in Informal Settlements?. Urban Forum 30, 289–306 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-019-09361-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-019-09361-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation