Working Joblessness: Young People Deploying 21St Century Skills in Post-Conflict Liberia and Sierra Leone
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Wilfrid Laurier University Scholars Commons @ Laurier Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) 2021 WORKING JOBLESSNESS: YOUNG PEOPLE DEPLOYING 21ST CENTURY SKILLS IN POST-CONFLICT LIBERIA AND SIERRA LEONE Frances Fortune [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd Part of the Economics Commons, and the Work, Economy and Organizations Commons Recommended Citation Fortune, Frances, "WORKING JOBLESSNESS: YOUNG PEOPLE DEPLOYING 21ST CENTURY SKILLS IN POST-CONFLICT LIBERIA AND SIERRA LEONE" (2021). Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive). 2376. https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/2376 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) by an authorized administrator of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WORKING JOBLESSNESS: YOUNG PEOPLE DEPLOYING 21ST CENTURY SKILLS IN POST-CONFLICT LIBERIA AND SIERRA LEONE Katherine Frances Barclay Fortune Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Dissertation In partial fulfillment of the requirements of Ph.D. in Global Governance at Balsillie School of International Affairs Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario © Katherine Frances Barclay Fortune Abstract In Liberia, state economic development policies based on the resource extractive industry's short-term needs have produced too few job opportunities for young people. The development policies have failed to grow the private sector to create jobs, recognize the importance of urbanization, or expand the informal economy's contribution to employment in urban areas. As a result, young people are obliged to use their creativity and digital connections to make a living outside of the normative models of work using an organic social process of bricolage. Bricolage is a type of entrepreneurship or a form of action which can occur in resource-scare environments and is centred on cocreation and the combining of socially embedded resources. This dissertation explores young people’s bricolage in the urban ecosystem of a post-conflict state, showing how they are tapping into global connections, and revealing the influence of global regimes on their work. The dissertation is an interdisciplinary study and uses a qualitative research methodology to examine young people’s work, focusing on their agency and access to appropriate support in post-conflict states' challenging circumstances. It explores two central questions through interviews with young people and authorities in Liberia and Sierra Leone: How are young people leveraging global connections through and in their work lives? What skills and strategies are they developing and deploying in response to global connections? Both questions relate directly to the impact of global flows on youth agency, especially the expanding informal economies, the global marketplace, technological development, and global practices such as the liberal peacebuilding model. These global flows impact young people's working lives, shape their skills, and influence policy and development programming, which in turn affect their productivity and engagement in the national economy. i The dissertation offers an alternative to the prevailing views of the ‘youth problem’ in Liberia and Sierra Leone, where legions of underemployed young men are considered dangerous by policymakers. The central argument is that young people are bricoleurs creating their work, building their self-efficacy and assets, and enacting multidimensional agency. They are rarely idle. Self-employed workers are operating in workscapes at the intersection of the local and the global forces, demonstrating their twenty-first-century skills. Government policies and neoliberal development practices largely ignore these young people, and their inventive bricolage warrants more recognition. States’ inability to address young people’s priorities is embedded in the policy prescriptions of global neoliberal regimes and the liberal peacebuilding model; youth marginalization is a direct consequence. Rather than preparing young people for jobs that do not exist and enterprise development not yet imagined, as policy currently does, recognition and support for the existing working strategies of the self-employed would result in increased productivity, higher incomes, and increased agency for young people. Key words: Youth, Workscapes, Bricolage, Post-conflict and Self-Employment ii Acknowledgments “I always get to where I am going by walking away from where I have been.” ~ A. A. Milne The Balsillie Fellowship allowed Jandeh, Michael, and me to journey in a different place than where we had been. Putting aside my work for a few years to explore the realm of global social policy and its impact on the people and places we knew meant change for the three of us. Jandeh and Michael embraced the project. I am so grateful to them both; Michael for his enthusiasm for the project and Jandeh for accompanying me to the end, with all that entailed. It took courage, patience, empathy, and trust. Jandeh has all of these qualities - in spades. Thank you, Jandeh. I am fortunate to have many people to thank. Mike, who encouraged me to apply for the scholarship, and Will who explained what a structuralist school meant. My committee was terrific; Drs. Rianne Mahon, Reina Neufeldt, guided by Andrea Brown, represent the interdisciplinary nature of my work. They encouraged me, gave hours of their precious time, and shared their wisdom, for which I am grateful. Many others have contributed. Ambrose, Ngolo, Oscar, Andrew, Patrick and Aunty Mary, Ann, Rebecca, Topher, Bill, Keith, Ibrahim, Ismael, Susan, Jango, Spes, Nancy and, Lydia are a few of the many who have inspired, motivated, and energized this dissertation and shaped my world view. My extended family, Maman, Bubs, Sharon, Heather, Ann, Lucinda and all of you who have called, enquired, not enquired, and encouraged, I thank you. A special mention to David, who kept the elephant in the room, the home fires burning, and kept me going when it seemed nigh impossible. Thank you. iii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................. i Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................. iii List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... vi Chapter One: Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 The Global Youth Unemployment Crisis ........................................................................ 3 The Informal Economy: A Brief Note ............................................................................. 9 Bricolage, Vital Conjunctures, 21st Century Skills, and Workscapes ........................... 15 Overview ........................................................................................................................ 23 Chapter Two: Emerging African Episteme and Self-Employment .................................. 27 Global Youth .................................................................................................................. 32 African Youth ................................................................................................................ 40 Youth in Conflict ........................................................................................................... 53 Chapter Three: Methodology............................................................................................ 61 Qualitative Research ...................................................................................................... 61 Guiding Principles ......................................................................................................... 62 The Case Study Method ................................................................................................. 65 Research Process ............................................................................................................ 69 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 81 Chapter Four: Liberia, Sweet Land of Liberty: The Case ............................................... 81 Liberia’s Development Agenda ..................................................................................... 82 iv Historical Antecedents of War in Liberia ...................................................................... 84 The Post-Conflict Agenda and Supercharged Policy Formulation ................................ 90 Liberian Youth, their Work Environment, and the Labour Market ............................. 100 Post-Conflict Labour Market ....................................................................................... 107 Ebola Virus Disease ..................................................................................................... 114 Liberia: The Lone Star State in Recovery.................................................................... 115 Chapter 5: Young Bricoleurs And Monrovia Workscapes .............................................