Proposing love on the way to school: daily mobility, sexuality and youth transitions in South Africa.

Young people's daily mobility in sub-Saharan Africa remains largely invisible and under-researched. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data from the Child Mobility Project in South Africa, we show how young people's daily journeys (to school and other places) shape, and are shaped by, the possibility of sexual encounters. Young women are seen to be at risk of sexual violence as they travel around their neighbourhoods and fears of sexual violence and transgressive relationships lead to controls over their mobility, with potentially negative consequences for education and social opportunities. However, mobility can also present opportunities for welcomed sexual encounters and experimentation, which are seen as part of growing up. We discuss the implications for young women's ability to negotiate safe routes to adulthood

Where dogs, ghosts and lions roam: learning from mobile ethnographies on the journey to school

This paper draws on mobility research conducted with children in three countries: Ghana, Malawi and South Africa. It has two interlinked aims: to highlight the potential that mobile interviews can offer in research with young people, especially in research contexts where the main focus is on mobility and its impacts, and to contribute empirical evidence regarding the significance of everyday mobility to young people's lives and future life chances in sub-Saharan Africa. During the pilot phase of our research project on children, transport and mobility, the authors undertook walks home from school with teenage children1 in four different research sites: three remote rural, one peri-urban. As the children walked (usually over a distance of around 5 km) their stories of home, of school and of the environment in-between, gradually unfolded. The lived experiences narrated during these journeys offer considerable insights into the daily lives, fears and hopes of the young people concerned, and present a range of issues for further research as our study extends into its main phase

Young people’s transport and mobility in sub-Saharan Africa: the gendered journey to school

This paper draws on rich ethnographic data and complementary survey research from a three-country study (Ghana, Malawi, South Africa) of young people’s mobility to explore the gendered nature of children’s journeys to school in sub-Saharan Africa. In most African countries, girls’ participation in formal education is substantially lower than boys’, especially at secondary school level. Transport and mobility issues often form an important component of this story, though the precise patterning of the transportation and mobility constraints experienced by schoolchildren, and the ways in which transport factors interact with other constraints, varies from region to region. We draw attention to the nature of gendered travel experiences in rural and urban areas, the implications of these findings for access to education, and finally suggest areas where policy intervention could be beneficial

Child porterage and Africa’s transport gap: evidence from Ghana, Malawi and South Africa.

Children's load-carrying has been largely invisible in studies of African economies, being commonly subsumed under women's or family labor. This paper, based on interdisciplinary qualitative and quantitative research in 24 sites, examines the role of child porterage in helping to fill Africa's transport gap and considers its developmental significance for education, well-being, and health. It provides detailed information regarding the scale, nature, and perceived impacts of children's load-carrying work in domestic and commercial contexts, indicates the importance of gender and generational analysis, and explores key policy challenges

Perspectives on Young People’s Daily Mobility, Transport and Service Access in Sub-Saharan Africa

Young people’s mobility challenges in Western contexts have been the focus of research for some decades, principally – but not only – with reference to the school journey. By contrast, young people’s mobility in sub-Saharan Africa is remarkably under-researched, despite the vital significance of mobility (and immobility) to so many children’s lives. This is an extremely important omission, given that over half the population of many African countries consists of children and young people. Improving mobility and access to health and education facilities for both girl and boy children has massive implications for their subsequent livelihood potential (Bartlett 2001). It is crucial to many of the Millennium Goals, notably universal primary education, promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, and reduced child mortality (Fay et al. 2005). In this chapter we review some of the findings from a research study centred on young people’s mobility conducted between 2006 and 2010 in three African countries, Ghana, Malawi and South Africa. This study was extensive in scale (24 sites across urban and rural locations and two different agro-ecological zones per country) and innovative in its inclusion of 70 young research collaborators aged from 11 to c.20 years (when they started work on the study), in addition to conventional academic research. Developing this two-stranded research approach and applying it across diverse countries and sites has enabled us to assemble a strong, comparative evidence base. Our aim was to establish an evidence base substantial enough not only to improve policy in our three focus countries but sufficiently compelling to contribute to a new recognition among policy makers and practitioners across Africa of the key significance of mobility and physical access to services in building young lives

Taking the long view: temporal considerations in the ethics of children’s research activity and knowledge production.

Children are increasingly engaged in the research process as generators of knowledge, but little is known about the impacts on children's lives, especially in the longer term. As part of a study on children's mobility in Ghana, Malawi and South Africa, 70 child researchers received training to conduct peer research in their own communities. Evaluations at the time of the project suggested largely positive impacts on the child researchers: increased confidence, acquisition of useful skills and expanded social networks; however, in some cases, these were tempered with concerns about the effect on schoolwork. In the follow-up interviews 2 years later, several young Ghanaian researchers reported tangible benefits from the research activity for academic work and seeking employment, while negative impacts were largely forgotten. This study highlights the unforeseeable consequences of research participation on children's lives as they unfold in unpredictable ways and underscores the temporal nature of children's engagement in research. © 2012 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC