Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 20 No. 1 (Spring 2010) ISSN: 1546-2250 Youth and the City in the Global South Hansen, Karen Tranberg and Dalsgaard, Anne Line and Gough, Katherine (2008). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press; 248 pages. $24.95. ISBN 9780253219695. Youth and the City in the Global South explores the everyday experiences of youth in three developing world cities: Recife in Brazil, Lusaka in Zambia and Hanoi in Vietnam. The Youth and the City project is an interdisciplinary, comparative and cross-national collaborative study of urban youth experiences in the wake of globalization and socioeconomic and political transformations. The book’s contributors include three anthropologists (Hansen, Dalsgaard and Valentine), an educator (Madsen), a human geographer (Gough) and a media scholar (Wildermuth), as well as two Brazilian local researchers (Franch and Scott). Hansen, who is the principal investigator of Youth and the City project, is an urban and economic anthropologist and professor of anthropology at Northwestern University in Chicago. The book is organized into three parts: “Situating Youth in the City,” “Studying Youth in Cities,” and “Youth Making Meaning.” One central theme throughout is that cities are an important vehicle for youths’ exposure to the wider world. The book argues that previous studies have focused on either youth or the urban environment, rather than their interaction. Because they have been rarely integrated, the significance of the urban in youths’ everyday lives has been underestimated. Also, the book maintains that youth in the global South are not passive recipients of global popular culture as implied by the term “globalization”. Throughout, the book’s contributors question the assumptions of sameness and uniformity generated by globalization, arguing that this inaccurately privileges Western culture and marginalizes other cultures. Youth in the global South transform and localize global popular culture to suit their local socio-economic and political conditions. Besides, the book observes, the life experiences of developing world youth “do not always replicate past experiences in the West concerning demographic 351 transition, adulthood and mobility” though “the adverse effects of current economic practices on youth employment prospects may contribute to the convergence of youth experiences everywhere” (4). The contributors maintain that adequately comprehending youths’ experiences requires drawing on several spheres of their everyday lives. Thus, this calls for a combination of academic disciplines in an interdisciplinary as opposed to a multi-disciplinary approach. The second chapter of the book deals with the methodological challenges and implications of comparative, interdisciplinary and cross-national collaborative youth research. Researchers interested in cross-country and inter-continental youth studies would find this chapter’s emphasis on the complexity of what to measure and compare, and the power and limits of interdisciplinary collaboration rewarding. The research methodology “acknowledges the interconnectedness of young people’s lives and their movements between different sites, and captures the fluidity that characterizes their everyday practices” (25). Part two of the book, which consists of three chapters, is the core of the book’s comparative perspective. The Brazilian case study draws readers’ attention to the impact of marked social differences, uncertainty, unemployment and institutional collapse on youth transition to adulthood. Those interested in the impact of class, gender and societal values and expectations on youths’ transition to adulthood would appreciate this chapter. Valentine focuses on the politicized nature of young people’s everyday lives and future trajectories in Hanoi. Through the Youth Union, young people have a shared identity as Union members and this membership provides them with a position in the sociopolitical hierarchy that cuts across economic and spatial boundaries. The chapter on youth in Hanoi would capture the interest of youth researchers interested in nationalism, patriotism and changing political ideologies and how these bear on the meaning of youth. Hansen looks at the localities and sites of youth agency in Zambia. She situates the socioeconomic problems of youth in Lusaka in both historical and contemporary perspectives, paying particular attention to the impact of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) and the HIV/AIDS 352 pandemic. Hansen also notes the increasing role played by NGOs, churches and the music scene as important spaces for youth action, spiritual strength, protest and expression. Taken together, being a young person in Recife, Hanoi or Lusaka is seen...