Abstract
This paper emerges out of a study with 293 young people (Syrians, Palestinians and nationals) living in contexts of compound crises and protracted displacement in Jordan and Lebanon. In the paper, we discuss how young people’s education trajectories can be conceptualised, operationalised and studied. We synthesise different approaches to understanding and analysing such trajectories into a framework that captures the intricate and multi-directional ways that young people navigate towards uncertain futures. The framework on multi-directional trajectories takes its starting point from an understanding of Victoria Browne’s ‘lived time’, captured through how different temporalities come together in one person’s story. After presenting our framework and the context in the first part of the paper, the second part applies the framework to analyse the ‘vital conjuncture’ of leaving education. By analysing leaving education as lived time, we create nuanced insights into how this vital conjuncture can be understood to shape young peoples’ trajectories. In conclusion, we discuss the value of understanding trajectories as lived time by illuminating how young people experience and navigate their education trajectories.
Highlights
Angela VealeThere is wide consensus on the need to turn away from prescriptive models of youth based on age or linear stages towards a more complex notion of youth transitions (Punch 2002; Valentine 2003; Hörschelmann and Schäfer 2005; Jeffrey 2010)
We develop a conceptual model for analysing trajectories based on young people’s ‘navigation’ (Vigh 2009) of ‘vital conjunctures’ (Johnson-Hanks 2002), understood through the multiple lenses of ‘lived time’ (Browne 2014)
In October 2019, people in Lebanon demanded an end to political and economic uncertainty, turmoil and inequality with protests across the country. It was in the shadow of the uprising known as the Revolution in Lebanon that we interviewed young people about their trajectories from education to employment
Summary
There is wide consensus on the need to turn away from prescriptive models of youth based on age or linear stages towards a more complex notion of youth transitions (Punch 2002; Valentine 2003; Hörschelmann and Schäfer 2005; Jeffrey 2010). Jordan 2,206,736 Palestinians are registered as refugees with UNRWA (UNRWA 2021a, 2021b), while in Lebanon estimated numbers range from 174,422 to 280,000 Palestinians (Chaaban et al 2016; LDPC 2018) People in both countries have lived through repeated and compound crises resulting from displacement, economic shocks and political uncertainty. For young refugees and those growing up in the radical uncertainty of crisis and protracted displacement contexts, the connection between education and employment continues to be restricted by political, legal and social realities including limitations on access to education and the labour market (Herrera 2006). People of Palestinian origin in Jordan hold different statuses depending on when they arrived in Jordan and from where they moved In both Lebanon and Jordan, the substantial restrictions on staying in school and accessing employment affect young people’s trajectories and influence the paths taken and how they plan their future. In the sections to follow, we set out to understand how we can analyse young people’s trajectories and the zones of possibility that emerge at specific points in those trajectories in the context of displacement and crises
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