Youth activism in Colombia: transforming communities through youth-led social enterprises

Theme: This paper is part of the Panel ‘Child and Youth Activism: Claiming Spaces in an Unequal World’. As with the Panel overall, this paper will directly address the conference’s title -- Children’s rights and opportunities in an unequal world. It shares learning from participatory projects carried out with young people in Medellin and Quibdo, Colombia. The panel will address the conference theme of ‘child poverty, inequality and child welfare research’, through the subthemes of ‘rights of children and adolescents’ and ‘children’s participation and voices’.

Introduction: It is an accepted premise in the field of childhood studies and children’s rights that children and young people’s meaningful and non-tokenistic participation should lead to change. The nature of this change has been the subject of much debate and may include changes in children’s livelihood conditions, in childhood policy and practice, or children developing particular skills and experiences. This paper draws on two participatory projects with young people in Colombia to discuss young people’s own views and expectations of taking part in participatory projects and what tangible outcomes they expected as part of their involvement. In particular, the paper focuses on social entrepreneurship and innovation as an ‘unanticipated’ outcome of these participatory projects.

Methods: The two participatory projects involved Afrocolombian, indigenous and migrant young people aged 15 – 27 in different neighbourhoods of Medellin and Quibdo (Colombia). Both projects utilised digital and in-person participatory arts- and music-based methodologies, and focus groups and interviews with young people and local stakeholders.

Results: Our paper presents critical reflections on how participatory and pedagogical methodologies can foster young people’s innovation and entrepreneurial skills as an often overlooked outcome of such projects, particularly with older young people.

Implications: Our findings have implications for understanding sustainability of such projects, and highlight how different groups of young people engaged differently with the projects. We consider how young people’s economic activity can be meaningfully and ethically supported by project teams, and how young people’s quest for sustainable, fair and cooperative social entrepreneurship opportunities can constitute a form of youth activism within an economic system characterised by inequality and insecurity. Participatory projects with children and young people tend to draw on approaches and knowledges from different disciplines (for example, sociology, law and rights, geography, education, psychology, anthropology), and our projects highlighted the need to expand this interdisciplinarity through a focus on economics and entrepreneurship in order to address poverty and welfare in holistic ways.

Funding: AHRC GCRF Changing the Story Large Project Grant / University of Edinburgh SFC GCRF Global Impact Accelerator Grant / ACDI-VOCA Programa De Alianzas Para la Reconciliacion – Crear Sin Fronteras.