Rationale
This module examines the use of the comparative method in the social sciences to the study of youth in societies in different parts of the globe. This approach in youth studies is both fruitful and challenging. Students will explore the debates among academic comparativists in youth studies and the frameworks that may be used to critique these approaches. Policy-makers in particular countries and multi-lateral agencies adopt particular orientations to identifying and solving problems encountered by young people across geographic areas and levels of development. They also produce a range of concepts, data and sources of information. This module identifies and examines the assumptions evident in international institutional approaches to constructing youth in different societies. Students will be able to draw on elements of critical scholarship to evaluate global institutional frameworks concerned with youth in different societies. These also include evaluations of the data and sources of information on young people produced by these agencies. Against that background, the module introduces global approaches to understanding specific themes on young people including: conflict, transition and economic development, and human rights.