BtH: How Rwanda’s Youth Impacts Social Institutions
The Beyond the Headlines @BUPardeeSchool, or BtH, series at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, continued on November 13, 2017 with a panel discussion on the youth bulge in Rwanda and youth involvement in the country’s political, economic and social institutions. The conversation was co-hosted by the African Studies Center, an affiliated center of the Pardee School.
The discussion was led by Kirsten Pontalti, of the Department of International Development at the University of Oxford, and moderated by Timothy Longman, Associate Professor of International Relations and Political Science at the Pardee School and Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs (CURA).
The conversation, entitled “Small But Significant: How Rwanda’s Young Majority Influences the Institutions That Shape Their Lives,” examined how young Africans influence processes of institutional reproduction and respond to persistent poverty, authoritarian rule, violence and major historical change.
Pontalti discussed the correlation between Rwanda’s youth bulge, conflict and low development, as well as her research examining how changes to the institution of marriage have affected the life experience of Rwanda’s youth.
According to Pontalti, Rwandan youth now direct marriage processes — a pattern that is associated with rising vulnerability from a breakdown in the intergenerational contract more than liberal values. Pontalti argued that in just three generations, children and youth have shifted gender norms toward greater equality, largely reversed generational power relations and reproduced kinship institutions to the extent that they remain the dominant rule system for most — diminishing state power.
Beyond the Headlines is a regular series at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies which seeks to cultivate informed conversations among experts and practitioners on issues that are currently in the news headlines, but to do so with a focus on intellectual analysis and on longer-range trends. Recent Beyond the Headlines discussions have focused on topics including China’s Communist Party Congress, the future of U.S. global climate policy, and the economic challenges facing Puerto Rico.