Music and Sports in the Making of Child and Youth Identities in Contemporary Africa

Music and Sports in the Making of Child and Youth Identities in Contemporary Africa

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the fourth session of its Child and Youth Studies Institute and invites interested scholars to send applications for consideration for selection as laureates, resource persons, and director in the session which is scheduled for October 2005. The Institute is an off-shoot of the Council's Child and Youth Studies Programme and is designed to strengthen analytic capacity on all questions affecting children and the youth in Africa and elsewhere in the world. The impetus for the introduction of the Institute was strengthened by the critique emanating from African researchers of the content and context of the developmental crises facing the continent and the link between these problems and what is now generally referred to as the Child and Youth Question. The Institute is, therefore, designed as an annual multidisciplinary forum where participants can reflect together on a specific aspect of the conditions of children and the youth in Africa and, in so doing, contribute to the advancement of the frontiers of knowledge and policy. Each session will be held over a period of four weeks under the leadership of a designated director.

The 2005 session of the Institute will explore Music and Sports in the Making of Child and Youth Identities in Contemporary Africa to reflect on the power of mobilisation and expression that music and sports convey and the increasingly important place they occupy in the lives and outlook of the younger members of society. Furthermore, personal and collective immersion in music and sports has, perhaps more than ever before, become both a coping mechanism in the face of local/global adversity and an empowerment strategy for dealing with such adversities. Some even suggest that music and sports have come to play an important role in liberating the youth in an era characterised by widespread disillusionment and alienation. The emergence of the global television - and its round-the-clock, dedicated musical and sport programming - mobile telephony, and the internet has facilitated the growth of new local and global youth cultural communities around music and sports that are fed into the making and re-making of child and youth identities, including dress, dance, and language forms. New civic identities are emerging which carry varying implications for traditional modes of mobilisation of the youth as citizens of specific nation-states; they are also directly impacting on family strategies for the development of the careers of their children and the preferences which children set out for their own post-school professional livelihood. The huge commercial opportunities offered by the growing youth market in music and sports have resulted in the emergence of different corporate strategies for exploiting and expanding the market; corporations have also taken a frontline role in shaping youth tastes in music and sports, as well as the associated paraphernalia, in a trend which has revived discussions about cultural imperialism and the erosion of local musical genres and sports. Through the theme of the 2005 session, participants in the Institute are being invited to undertake a critical assessment of the different dimensions of the interface between music, sports and child and youth identities. Participants will be encouraged to review the relevant literature that is emerging on the subject; analyse the empirical evidence which is available both from their own field work and other sources; construct conceptual, theoretical, and methodological tools that could help to deepen knowledge, as well as advance debate; and consider the challenges for further research which arise from their scholarly interventions. For this purpose, the resources of the CODESRIA documentation and information centre (CODICE) and the expertise of a team of experienced resource persons will be made available to the participants in the Institute. Laureates Candidates wishing to be considered for selection as laureates in the Institute should normally be researchers based in African institutions and who have completed their university education/professional training. Furthermore, they should have a demonstrable interest in the Child and Youth Question. Self-sponsoring non-African candidates will also be considered for a limited number of spaces in the Institute. A total of 15 laureates will be selected from the applications received. All candidates are required to submit an application which should include:

i) A letter of request for consideration for admission into the Institute, complete with all available contact details (e-mail, telephone, and fax); ii) A research proposal of not more than ten pages linked clearly to the theme of the Institute and with a well-defined problematic; iii) An updated curriculum vitae; iv) An official letter of institutional affiliation; and v) Two reference letters.

Resource Persons Four resources persons will be selected to work with the director of the Institute to facilitate the discussions and debates that will be held. The resource persons are required to deliver lectures to help the laureates to stimulate their reflections on the theme and assist laureates to revise their research proposals for the Institute. As such, the resource persons must have a strong scholarly track record on the Institute's theme. Each resource person will be given a slot to make up to three presentations to the laureates; and will be called upon to offer comments on the proposals of the laureates. Once selected, resource persons will be required to submit their presentations so that these can be circulated in advance to the laureates. After the Institute, they will be expected to revise their presentations for consideration for publication by the Council in a volume devoted to the theme of the session in which they participated.

Candidates for resource persons are requested to submit:

i) A letter of application; ii) An updated curriculum vitae; iii) An outline of not more than five pages of the issues they would like to tackle within the theme of the Institute and spread over three lectures of two hours each; and iv) A reading list to accompany their presentations.

Director The Director takes on the overall responsibility for managing the scientific sessions of the Institute not only in terms of designing an overall programme of presentations and discussions but also assisting the laureates to get the best out of the programme. The director is also expected to edit the proceedings of the Institute once the reports of the laureates and the revised papers of the resource persons are received. Candidates for this position should be accomplished scholars who will be able both to guide and inspire the laureates. Candidates to be considered for this role are requested to submit:

i) A letter of application; ii) An updated curriculum vitae; iii) A detailed course outline on the theme of the Institute and which should also be divided into sub-themes that they wish to see covered during the Institute; and iv) A bibliographic list to accompany the proposed course outline.

All applications received for consideration as laureates, resource persons and director will be screened by an independent selection committee made up of eminent scholars with expertise on the theme of the Institute. The deadline for the receipt of applications is: 26 August 2005. Applications should be sent to:

The Child and Youth Studies Institute CODESRIA Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop (Angle Canal IV), BP 3304, CP 18524, Dakar, Senegal.

Tel: +221-8259822/23 Fax: +221-8241289 E-Mail: [email protected]