Learning to co-operate: youth engagement with the co-operative revival in Africa

Co-operatives are seen to offer alternatives for individuals to improve livelihoods. However they have a mixed record, especially in Africa. Initially controlled by the state, many co-operatives did not survive with the advent of structural adjustment policies. However there is now a revival. In parallel, some countries have policies to engage youth in co-operatives. Can co-operatives, as socially-oriented businesses, throw off their history and provide an opportunity for youth? This article examines this question by combining extensive field data from youth co-operatives in Uganda and Lesotho with situated learning and human development theories. It finds that contemporary co-operatives and their networks provide an ‘expanded learning space’ for youth, although there is differentiation by education and gender and type of co-operative. The article makes a novel contribution to debates about co-operatives in development and their potential to provide an alternative route for youth futures