Adolescence, Youth and Gender: Conference and Call for Papers

The call for papers, panels and posters is now open for Adolescence, Youth and Gender: Building Knowledge for Change, a conference being held in Oxford in September. The conference is organised by Young Lives, an international study of childhood poverty involving 12,000 children in four countries over 15 years.

Over the last few decades, the highlighting of early childhood as a critical period for intervention has resulted in a dramatic reduction in child mortality and the expansion of primary schooling. More recently, however, the recognition of the second decade of life as a window of opportunity in which to reduce poverty and inequality means adolescence, with a particular focus on girls, has also risen on the global agenda.

Since gender differences widen during the second decade of childhood, it’s argued that improving the life-chances of girls will result in greater individual and national prosperity and promote equality. But the argument is not without its problems. Interventions commonly reflect a false dichotomy which views 'adolescence' as relevant to girls, and 'youth' to young men. There is also the additional challenge of reaching girls in contexts in which they are excluded from public spaces.

The two-day conference will be of interest to anyone interested in recent perspectives on adolescence, youth and gender and the relationship of these to international development. It will offer reflections on the latest evidence and approaches and consider the implications for policy and programming.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 15 February 2016 and papers using Young Lives or other longitudinal data are particularly welcome – household and child-level data from the first three rounds of the Young Lives survey are available from the UK Data Archive.

For more details, visit the Young Lives website.