Living through the future: rural youth, livelihoods and the production of gendered aspirations in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between the everyday livelihood practices of rural youth living and working in Addis Ababa and the production of gendered future aspirations. Drawing on Appadurai’s (2004) notion of the ‘capacity to aspire’ and building on theoretical advancements on youth aspirations, findings presented show young people’s future imaginaries are rooted in the driving factors that defined their migration trajectories, renegotiated in relation to subjective experiences of urban life. In highlighting the strategies that youth devise in their efforts to survive and live through the city, this paper highlights the relational nature of aspirations, emphasising how future imaginaries are formed in relation to youth’s past, their social obligations, their networks and their marginality in relation to the state. This paper situates the production of future aspirations within broader social, economic and migratory spatialities and temporalities that configure young people’s gendered experiences of cities of the global South.