Not raised ‘to make big decisions’: Young people’s agency and livelihoods in rural Pakistan

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cg.authorship.typesCGIAR and advanced research instituteen_US
cg.contributor.affiliationWageningen University & Researchen_US
cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Maize and Wheat Improvement Centeren_US
cg.contributor.crpMaizeen_US
cg.contributor.crpWheaten_US
cg.contributor.donorBill & Melinda Gates Foundationen_US
cg.coverage.countryPakistanen_US
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2PKen_US
cg.coverage.regionAsiaen_US
cg.coverage.regionSouthern Asiaen_US
cg.creator.identifierPatti Petesch: 0000-0001-6444-9032en_US
cg.creator.identifierLone Badstue: 0000-0001-8848-7498en_US
cg.howPublishedFormally Publisheden_US
cg.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1080/08039410.2022.2071333en_US
cg.isijournalISI Journalen_US
cg.issn1891-1765en_US
cg.issue2en_US
cg.journalForum for Development Studiesen_US
cg.reviewStatusPeer Reviewen_US
cg.subject.ilriAGRICULTUREen_US
cg.subject.ilriLIVELIHOODSen_US
cg.volume49en_US
dc.contributor.authorPetesch, Pattien_US
dc.contributor.authorBadstue, Lone B.en_US
dc.contributor.authorRahut, Dil Bahaduren_US
dc.contributor.authorAli, Akhteren_US
dc.date.accessioned2022-09-07T11:51:46Zen_US
dc.date.available2022-09-07T11:51:46Zen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/121160en_US
dc.titleNot raised ‘to make big decisions’: Young people’s agency and livelihoods in rural Pakistanen_US
dcterms.abstractWe examine young people's testimonies about their capacity to make important decisions and their livelihood experiences from agricultural communities that span Pakistan's countryside. Our analysis is guided by theories of agency that focus on how a young person's capacity to identify and act on goals is mediated by their local opportunity structure – shaping their household relations, livelihood choices, and prevailing social norms. We apply comparative and contextual qualitative analysis methods to our dataset of 12 village cases, which include 24 sex-specific youth focus groups. We also present a secondary survey analysis. We find high rural employment levels among young men in recent years, and a decline in rural young women's employment from already low levels. The young study participants mainly observe limited capacity to make important decisions. They repeatedly attribute this to expectations of strict deference to elders and other norms about their gender, young age, junior household position, marital status, and socio-economic standing. They also report negotiating and resisting confining norms; however, young women's agency appears especially constrained by norms that discourage their physical mobility and visible economic roles. We examine two villages where some youth express healthier levels of agency and more desirable economic opportunities than others, and the significance of kinship relations and fluid norms in this environment. We call for models of young people's agency that register more effectively the importance of household relations, the gatekeeper role of elders, and the contextual and fluid properties of norms, as these dynamics both constrain and enable young people's agency.en_US
dcterms.accessRightsOpen Accessen_US
dcterms.audienceScientistsen_US
dcterms.available2022-05-20en_US
dcterms.bibliographicCitationPetesch, P., Badstue, L., Rahut, D.B. and Ali, A. 2022. Not raised ‘to make big decisions’: Young people’s agency and livelihoods in rural Pakistan. Forum for Development Studies 49(2):261-289.en_US
dcterms.extentpp. 261-289en_US
dcterms.issued2022-05-04en_US
dcterms.languageenen_US
dcterms.licenseCC-BY-4.0en_US
dcterms.publisherInforma UK Limiteden_US
dcterms.subjectlivelihoodsen_US
dcterms.subjectagricultureen_US
dcterms.typeJournal Articleen_US

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