“Coming to uni was isolating, a massive culture shock”: the struggle of working-class rural youth for recognition and belonging at a metropolitan university

‘Rural youth’ is a new focus area within the CGIAR (and in the wider academic literature), yet there are few studies which examine young people’s roles and relationships to trees, forests and agroforests. This background report suggests ways the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees, and Agroforestry (FTA) can involve rural young people into its research and action. This is at a time when academic and government reports note the widening gaps between the aspirations young people have as compared to the realities of the job markets in much of the Global South. For rural and marginal areas, these trends are especially acute as agriculture and forestry sectors decline and many rural young people desire stable, paid employment., suggesting now is a critical time to involve young people into FTA’s research and action. In doing so, the report examines how rural youth are studied from a variety of angles: in contemporary agrarian, youth and development literatures, and examines how young people are studied by five large development agencies; and by some of CGIAR’s Research Programs. In learning from these studies, the report offers four major lessons for FTA. These lessons focus on how to study rural youth and their various contexts, conceptually and methodologically; how to engage local to regional rural development activities; and how to support local to national level partnerships. All of these activities give means and networks of support for rural young people’s development and employment. In sum, the report offers key questions and starting points for engaging with young people in each of FTA’s Flagships, which can not only move the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Strategy forward, but help study and address the challenges facing rural livelihoods and landscapes now and in the future.

The geographic, cultural, social and economic milieu that impacts mental health in rural communities globally has been well documented. However, few studies have addressed how rural ecosystems impact specifically upon the mental health and wellbeing of young people. Furthermore, the limited explorations of factors contributing to poorer mental health outcomes in rural youth have primarily included adult voices. The study aimed to give a youth voice to the vexed problem of high rates of youth mental illness and suicide in rural and remote areas, exploring young people's experiences in a deeply contextual manner. This study followed a phenomenological qualitative design underpinned by the principles of participatory action research. A youth-led reference group provided guidance on the study design and recruitment. A total of 29 young people aged 12-19 years were recruited from a small rural community in southern Western Australia. Individual and focus group semi-structured interviews were conducted. The interviews were transcribed and subjected to thematic analysis informed by ecological systems theory. The findings demonstrate the impact of a rural address on youth mental health through the influence of three overarching spheres of influence, as described by ecological systems theory: 'everyone knows everyone', 'small school and beyond' and 'the place'. Most themes included both positive and negative components, as well as ambivalence, demonstrating a double-edged sword. The study findings support the view that mental health in rural young people is best viewed through an ecosystem lens, acknowledging the complex and dynamic interplay between interpersonal, community and environmental factors on young people. The paradoxes and contradictions present in almost every interview are informative, instructive and of great value in considering the needs and desires of rural young people. Rural communities should be supported to build upon their intrinsic strengths to ameliorate the impact of rurality on mental health risk factors for young people. Building on the assets inherent in rural communities, could rural young people have better outcomes than urban youth?

3. Career Plans of Farm Reared Boys : A Cross Cultural Study

Purpose We explored factors influencing the intention of rural young people to migrate to urban areas, based on the Rational Action Approach (RAA), adding the “self-identity” construct. Design/methodology/approach Data from 187 young rural people were collected and analyzed using SmartPLS (3.3.3) software to perform partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis in two stages. Findings In the first stage, the assessment of the measurement model indicated that rural youths’ intention to migrate to urban areas is influenced by reliable reflective constructs such as experiential attitude, injunctive subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and, inversely, self-identity. Meanwhile, the second stage revealed that rural youths’ beliefs regarding urban life stress do not affect experiential behavioral beliefs. Beliefs about cooperatives do not influence injunctive normative beliefs, and beliefs concerning the settlement's infrastructure do not impact control beliefs. Research limitations/implications This study uses the intention of rural young people in the Itamarati Settlement to migrate to urban areas as quickly as possible as a dependent variable and not as an actual migration. This is a common limitation in RAA studies in the agricultural domain. Originality/value This study provides a methodological contribution by employing the hierarchical component model (HCM) approach to estimate, specify and validate the hierarchical structure of higher-order constructs as reflective-formative composite models. Furthermore, our study highlights the importance of experiential attitude in shaping rural youths’ intention to migrate to urban areas. Thus, the adoption of hierarchical modeling based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) broadens the scope of analyses on migration intention, contributing to a more holistic understanding of the psychological and social determinants that influence this phenomenon.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the multinational oil companies’ (MOCs) corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in Nigeria. Its special focus is to investigate the impact of General Memorandum of Understanding (GMoUs) on rural young people involved in non-timber forest products (NTFPs) for sustainable livelihood in Niger Delta, Nigeria. Designed/methodology/approach – Data for this study were collected from primary sources, using participatory rural appraisal (PRA) technique of semi-structured interview (SSI) questionnaire. The use of a participatory research technique in collecting CSR impact data especially as it concerns the rural young people is because it involves the people being studied, and their views on all the issues are paramount. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Inferential statistical tool-estimation of logit model was used to test the two research hypotheses. Findings – The results indicate that general memorandum of understandings (GMoUs) have not given adequate attention to the young people as a special target sub-group who live in rural areas and depend mostly on NTFPs. Results also show that a number of factors hindering rural young people from the use and development of NTFPs include a policy vacuum, non-destructive harvesting, and destruction of natural habitats, bushfires, population growths and high demands. Research limitations/implications – The semi structure interview questionnaire was directly administered by the researchers with the help of research assistants. The use of local research assistants was because of the inability of the researchers to speak the different local languages and dialects of the many ethnic groups of Ijaws, Ogonis, Ikweres, Etches, Ekpeyes, Ogbas, Engennes, Obolos, Isokos, Nembes, Okirikas, Kalabaris, Urhobos, Iteskiris, Igbos, Ika-Igbos, Ndonis, Orons, Ibenos, Yorubas, Ibibios, Anangs, Efiks, Bekwarras, Binis, Eshans, Etsakos, Owans, Itigidis, Epies, Akokoedos, Yakkurs, etc, in the sampled rural communities. Practical implications –An appropriate GMoU-intervention framework for a sustainable promotion of NTFPs, domestication of NFTPs, improving harvesting and processing techniques are necessary to facilitate good security, reduction of poverty and improved livelihoods, particularly for the economically-marginalized and forest-dependent rural young people is imperative. Social implications – Sustainable livelihoods of the forest-dependent rural young people in sub-Saharan Africa would require some focused CSR interventions on the NTFPs for sustainable livelihood. Facilities pertaining to storage, grading, processing and value addition through convergence of existing schemes and programmes should be promoted and created. MOCs are in a position to empower the rural young people with information about the market, policy and products to enable the rural people strategize and access returns from NTFPs in sub-Saharan Africa. Originality/value – This research adds to the literature on multinational enterprises (MNEs) CSR initiatives in developing countries and rationale for demands for social projects by host communities. It concludes that business has an obligation to help in solving problems of sustainable livelihood.

Drawing from a larger ethnographic project, this paper discusses rural young people's construction of “boundary publics” as a strategy for space making and locations for what I describe as queer identity work. Building off of the rich literature theorizing both the public sphere and responsive counterpublics, the notion of a boundary public is offered to better address the infrastructural constraints of rural communities and as a critical site to explore young people’s experiences crafting queer sexual and gender identities. Contrary to the presumed invisibility of queer genders and sexualities in rural spaces, I argue that youth assert their presence in fabulously conspicuous ways. Youth pieced together resources in and beyond their communities, carving out what I call “boundary publics”—from personal and organizational websites created by and for other rural queer young people to drag outings at the local Wal-Mart and a local church’s SkatePark. This paper provides a rich account of what rural queer youth do with and in the spaces around them. Their social interactions challenge the expectation that rural queer publics are unsustainable or poor imitations when compared to an urban queer scene. Arguing that late modern identities call for publics, this paper analyzes how rural queer and questioning youth craft such spaces in ways and locations one might not likely expect. Rather than counter or rebuff the mainstream or rural public sphere, the boundary publics of rural young people necessarily move among both the centers and margins of their rural communities. These occupations are activities of what I describe as queer identity work. Youth crisscross the commercial zones of chain stores and the nonprofit corporate structures of non-governmental LGBT advocacy organizations. They also occupy and work the spaces of public parks and meeting halls of organized religions. Rural queer young people absorb, recycle, and recuperate these spaces to make them their own—if only temporarily so. And, in increasingly complicated ways, these youth take up what I shall call new mediascapes such as personal and group websites and listservs. Each of these types of occupation or moments of queer identity work can be understood as liberating and impermanent. Indeed, it is the fragility of these competing qualities that make boundary publics such productive locations of rural queer youth identity work.The fragility of boundary publics also illustrates the elemental entanglements between these publics and the broader public sphere.The examples of queer rural youth boundary publics argue against theorizing that new media can produce independent publics insolated or removed from their offline contexts. In highlighting the constitutive matrices of boundary publics and public spheres, rural queer young people’s experiences of public-ness brings into question divisions of public and private spaces more broadly.

La question des jeunes ruraux est peu étudiée et souvent peu prise en compte dans les politiques publiques en Méditerranée, malgré le rôle actif de cette catégorie sociale au sein des exploitations agricoles et des territoires ruraux. Nous interrogeons ce paradoxe dans le numéro thématique des Cahiers Agricultures consacré aux jeunes ruraux en analysant leurs trajectoires innovantes dans l'agriculture irriguée au Maghreb. Les contributions de ce numéro montrent une e´mancipation des jeunes ruraux, qui se positionnent face à leurs aînés, prennent des initiatives et portent des innovations techniques et institutionnelles. Leur engagement dans l'agriculture est à l'origine du développement d'une agriculture irriguée qui couvre l'essentiel des besoins des villes maghrébines en produits maraîchers, notamment. Sur la base d'une démarche interdisciplinaire visant à rendre visible les dynamiques agricoles portées par ces jeunes, les articles apportent des éclairages originaux sur deux principales thématiques : i) l'émergence d'une catégorie sociale née de la libéralisation économique et animée par une aspiration générale à créer une petite agriculture entrepreneuriale ; ii) les stratégies de contournement et d'adaptation que les jeunes ruraux mettent en place pour construire leurs projets agricoles, face aux nombreuses difficultés d'accès aux ressources productives. Nous discutons le caractère informel des dynamiques observées sur le terrain dans la perspective de la mise en place de nouvelles politiques publiques qui pourraient tirer parti de l'opportunité que représente une jeunesse rurale apte à renouveler l'agriculture irriguée au Maghreb.

Handicrafts are key cultural products consumed in the Nigeria’s tourism industry. Owing to low entry barriers, as handicrafts require a low level of capital investment, there is potential to develop viable linkages between tourism and local handicrafts sectors that create economic opportunities for local artisans. Thus, we assess the impact of a new corporate social responsibility (CSR) model of multinational oil companies on the development of rural young people (RYP) in cultural tourism in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. Six hundred RYP were sampled across the rural Niger Delta region. Using the logit model, results indicate that RYP have remained widely excluded from the General Memorandum of Understandings (GMoUs) interventions in cultural tourism projects due to the traditional beliefs that cultural affairs are prerogatives of elders, a caveat to the youths. This implies that if the traditions of the communities continue to hinder direct participation of the RYP from the GMoUs cultural tourism project interventions, achieving equality and cultural change would be limited in the region. The findings suggest that since handicrafts are key cultural products consumed in the tourism industry, GMoUs can play a role in helping to create an appropriate intervention structure that will be targeted towards youth empowerment in the area of traditional handicraft. This can be achieved if the Cluster Development Boards (CDBs) would focus on integrating rural young artisans into local tourism value chains and ensuring that they benefit economically from the sector. The CDBs should aim at creating space for the views of rural young indigenous people’s handicrafts; emphasizing the value of indigenous knowledge, particularly on arts and crafts for tourists and expatriate in multinational corporations in Nigeria.

Hard work and hazard: Young people and agricultural commercialisation in Africa

American youth from rural backgrounds have made great strides to overcome challenges in college enrollment and completion since the 2000s. Yet little is known about how rural youth are financing these attainment increases—a pressing question in light of high college costs, rising student debt, and spatial inequality in the resources that students have to pay for college. This paper examines disparities in young adults' student debt by geographic background using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 Cohort. Regression analyses reveal that college‐goers from rural backgrounds accumulate more debt than those from suburban and urban backgrounds, adjusting for differences in sociodemographic characteristics. Rural college‐goers' higher debt can be partially attributed to differences in socioeconomic backgrounds and rates of inter‐county migration during college, and there is evidence that the additive influences of geographic background and gender contribute to particularly high debt among rural women. The findings suggest that longstanding spatial inequalities contribute to disparities in student debt and raise questions about the experiences of rural youth and communities in a debt‐based society.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the multinational oil companies’ (MOCs’) corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in Nigeria. Its special focus is to investigate the impact of Global Memorandum of Understandings (GMOUs) on rural young people involved in non-timber forest products (NTFPs) for sustainable livelihood in Niger Delta, Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach Data for this study were collected from primary sources, using participatory rural appraisal technique of semi-structured interview questionnaire. The use of participatory research techniques in collecting CSR impact data especially as it concerns the rural young people is because it involves the people being studied, and their views on all the issues are paramount. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. Inferential statistical tool – estimation of logit model was used to test the two research hypothesis. Findings The results indicate that GMoUs have not given adequate attention to young people as a special target sub-group who live in rural areas and depend mostly on NTFPs. Results also show that a number of factors hindering rural young people from the use and development of NTFPs include a policy vacuum, non-destructive harvesting, and destruction of natural habitats, bushfires, population growths and high demands. Research limitations/implications The semi-structured interview questionnaire was directly administered by the researchers with the help of research assistants. The use of local research assistants was because of the inability of the researchers to speak the different local languages and dialects of the many ethnic groups of Ijaws, Ogonis, Ikweres, Etches, Ekpeyes, Ogbas, Engennes, Obolos, Isokos, Nembes, Okirikas, Kalabaris, Urhobos, Iteskiris, Igbos, Ika-Igbos, Ndonis, Orons, Ibenos, Yorubas, Ibibios, Anangs, Efiks, Bekwarras, Binis, Eshans, Etsakos, Owans, Itigidis, Epies, Akokoedos, Yakkurs, etc., in the sampled rural communities. Practical implications An appropriate GMoU-intervention framework for sustainable promotion of NTFPs, domestication of NFTPs, improving harvesting and processing techniques are necessary to facilitate good security, reduction of poverty and improved livelihoods, particularly for the economically-marginalized and forest-dependent rural young people is imperative. Social implications Sustainable livelihoods of the forest-dependent rural young people in sub-Saharan Africa would require some focussed CSR interventions on the NTFPs for sustainable livelihood. Facilities pertaining to storage, grading, processing and value addition through the convergence of existing schemes and programmes should be promoted and created. MOCs are in a position to empower the rural young people with information about the market, policy and products to enable the rural people strategizing and accessing returns from NTFPs in sub-Saharan Africa. Originality/value This research adds to the literature on multinational enterprises’ CSR initiatives in developing countries and rationale for demands for social projects by host communities. It concludes that business has an obligation to help in solving problems of sustainable livelihood.

In this chapter we develop a theoretical-conceptual model on young farmers’ entrepreneurship in multi-functional, diverse and resilient sustainable rural development. Our aim is supported by policies fostering social and economic opportunities that target both rural youth and rural female entrepreneurship. The European Green Deal and associated targeted initiatives offer new avenues for agriculture, rural development, and social innovation aiming at vulnerable youth groups in rural communities such as rural young people Not in Employment, not in Education or Training (NEETs), or at setting up new, viable, and attractive businesses for overcoming negative representations about farming among rural younger generations. We identify and explain the obstacles and the policy opportunities for stronger rural youth entrepreneurship and their contribution to sustainable rural development. We make this by considering the concepts of sustainability and resilience associated with the multifunctionality and heterogeneity of rural areas in the context of the Industry 4.0 uprising. Altogether, these elements can determine young people’s level of involvement in the farming sector and their willingness to stay in rural areas, including among the most vulnerable ones. We also provide a set of research avenues to overcome traditional farming approaches and policy recommendations fostering entrepreneurship among rural young people.

This article draws together arguments for an interdisciplinary ‘spatial turn’ within sociology to analyse the subjectivities and biographical imaginings of Australian rural youth. It draws on a theoretical dialogue between theories of social change, and developments in socio-spatial theory in order to analyse the spatial contours of young people’s narratives, making a case for the significance of an ‘extraverted’ and porous sense of place for understanding rural youth identity. After a theoretical argument about the contemporary meaning of place for theories of globalisation and individualisation, the article presents two theoretically driven sets of case studies. The first discusses rural youth whose identities speak to the importance of place and ‘the local’ as resources for identity, while the second describes young people whose identities are ‘stretched’ across multiple spaces and locales. The analysis speaks to the importance of place for understanding the forms of reflexivity that rural youth mobilise in constructing their place in the world, and speaks to new ways in which to re-embed sociological analyses of youth within the spatially complex social landscapes of a globalised world.

The experiences of young people, particularly young women, in regional and rural communities and their perceptions of, and responses to, the climate crisis are under-researched. This research focuses on young people outside of urban centres. These young people are largely absent from the broader climate conversation, despite the impact of climate-related disasters in their everyday lives. Their experiences sit within the concept of rural as being deficit, disadvantaged and backward when contrasted with the experiences of urban young people and emerging calls to challenge this bias. This paper reports on a small-scale study investigating how young people who have experienced climate-related disasters in regional and rural Victoria perceive the climate crisis, the relationship between climate change and climate-related disasters, and climate action. Qualitative data was collected from interviews with young women aged 18–23 (n = 7) from six different councils/shires in rural and regional Victoria, Australia, which were impacted by bushfires in 2019–2020. The analysis is attentive to the particularities of “place”. The findings provide insight into regional and rural young people’s perceptions of the climate crisis, the connection (or otherwise) to climate-related disasters and climate action. They also reveal their perception of an urban/rural divide concerning climate action tactics and climate mitigation policy. The research highlights the social and material realities of young people’s everyday lives and feelings of stigma and fear, particularly where they perceived a conflict between climate action and the social and economic relations that shape their regional and rural communities.

Rural deficit discourses maintain that young people are disadvantaged by the rurality of where they live. Consistent with this is an assumption the Internet will alleviate isolation through its ability to collapse physical and temporal constraints. This article challenges such modes of understanding by privileging young Australian rural people’s voices and perspectives about online social environments. Focusing on the social networking site Facebook, the question of whether rural young people make use of the site to cross geography is posed. In order to cut through rhetoric positing a redemptive, transcending online space, Hogan’s revision of Goffman’s ‘presentation of self’ thesis is utlised to analyse how rural young people talk about using Facebook. Rather than realising the total collapse of geographic boundaries, young rural people talked about using the site to mold careful, but representative images of themselves to interact with their friends at a place and time of their choosing.