438
Youth in Latin America and the Caribbean: Inequalities, Intersectionality and Social Mobilization
Abstract Submissions Closed
RC34 Sociology of Youth (host committee)
Language: Spanish and English
Session Type: Oral
Inequality is a historical characteristic of Latin American and Caribbean countries. Although in the first years of the 21st century there have been significant progress in the region (in the reduction of income inequalities and poverty as well as in the expansion of human rights), it remains the most unequal region in the world. Furthermore, statistics show that these improvements registered mostly between 2002 and 2014 have begun to slow down from 2015 onward.
Young people experience these problems more seriously: they present higher levels of poverty, unemployment, and informality than adults. They are also widely affected by the deficiencies of the educational system. However, inequality is not only linked to socio-economic class or age class, it is also related to gender, race and ethnicity. Poverty and exclusion disproportionately affect young people, women, and indigenous and Afrodescendent people. An intersectional approach is therefore necessary to connect these different dimensions.
However, young Latin Americans are not passive actors in the face of inequalities and human rights violations. In recent years, young people have led processes of mobilization and resistance against perceived injustices. Broader understandings of these processes and on their effects on inequalities, from an intersectional perspective, are thus necessary.
This session therefore invites papers from researchers working on Latin American youth with a special focus on: a) inequality and intersectionality, b) inequalities, education and work, c) relationships between inequality and territory, d) inequality and violence, and e) youth processes of resistance, organization and mobilization, and their effects on inequalities.