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Debunking assumptions

Youth as a conceptual category are often perceived in negative ways – either as the main perpetrators of political violence, social unrest and violent extremism, or as passive victims of conflict who lack agency and need protection. In fact, the dominant narratives have tended to focus on youth as “problematic” or on “at risk” instead of considering how young people are positively contributing to peace in their societies (Mazzacurati, 2017).

These overly simplistic narratives that demonise or patronise youth have spread into policy circles, skewing policy and programmatic priorities in the process (Simpson, 2019) and contributing to counter-productive policy practices based on:

Alarmist theories of demographic “youth bulges”, where youth are seen as a major at-risk group prone to violence due to social, political and economic exclusion;
False assumptions that young people can be “easily” recruited in violent extremist groups, which have placed youth at the centre of policy on countering and preventing violent extremism (C/PVE);
An oversimplified view that unemployment and a lack of education contributes to youth violence. Tied into this is the inaccurate assumption that education and/or employment can single-handedly solve the problem of youth violence;
Fears about the migration crisis and the influx of young migrants and refugees, where young migrants are often represented as a burden for the host communities, as unable or unwilling to assimilate, as a drain on welfare provisions, and possibly posing security threats.
Conversely, narratives that romanticise youth as a faultless group that can do no harm can also lead to the spread of assumptions that fail to understand “the variety and multiplicity of young people’s identities, experiences and environments which shape their interactions across social, economic and political spheres.” (Cardozo et. al, 2015)

What is evident here is the need to move away from simplistic conceptualisations of youth that reduce a diverse category of people to a homogeneous group and undermine youth agency. Instead, it is critical to explore a more nuanced understanding of how young people can shape their societies, both positively and negatively.

Questions
As young peacebuilders, how do you think you are perceived by other peace and security actors? How do you perceive yourselves?
How does the narrative around youth in peace and conflict shape youth agency - as an enabler and/or as a barrier?
As a young peacebuilder, how do you think you are spoken for? How do you speak for yourselves? What kind of messaging do you put forward to represent yourselves? OR As a non-youth actor (practitioner, policy-maker, researcher), how do you craft messages and narratives around youth and peacebuilding? What kind of narratives around these issues reach you?
What spaces, tools and platforms do you use to make your message and narrative reach your audience, such as donors, partners, policymakers, and other youth?