Deploying Youth: Colombian Peacebuilding in Performance
Author(s):
Zareen Thomas
Publication Year:
2019
Type:
journal article
Journal/Book Title
The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology
Publisher
Editor(s):
Pages:
478-497
Volume:
24
Issue:
2
Abstract:
Latin American leaders frequently deploy narratives that centralize youth, and yet young people are among those most vulnerable to rights violations in the region. To address this circumstance, and help youth engage with moral deliberations, nongovernmental organizations encourage young people to partake in events and debates mediated increasingly through hip-hop—a genre that is presented as an empowering device due to its counterhegemonic origins in the United States. With youth at the forefront, organizations promote the genre through a dual process of spontaneity and institutionalized training, to encourage mediated practices of peacebuilding. Based on research conducted in Bogot ́ a between 2014 and 2016, I argue that through hip-hop interventions, young people and their organizational sponsors perform peace while (re)creating images of urban youth. [youth cultures, hip-hop, peacebuilding, Colombia]
Citation (Chicago Author-Date):
Thomas, Zareen. 2019. “Deploying Youth: Colombian Peacebuilding in Performance.” The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 24 (2): 478–97. https://doi.org/10.1111/jlca.12426.