Human Capital Theory and the Defectology of Aspirations in Policy Research on Rural Youth

Ben White ()
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Ben White: Emeritus International Institute of Social Studies

The European Journal of Development Research, 2021, vol. 33, issue 1, No 4, 54-70

Abstract: Abstract This article turns a sceptical eye on policy studies of youth aspirations, and specifically the reported aspirations of the world’s rural youth for mobility from farming to non-farming, and rural to non-rural futures. Four large-scale multi-country studies on young people’s aspirations are reviewed, and compared with the findings of more detailed, in-depth, local studies. Aspirations, it is argued, are viewed (and researched) much too simplistically in the policy world. Examples from many parts of the world suggest a need for caution about prevailing narratives that ‘rural youth today are not interested in farming futures’. They underline the importance of a life-course and generational perspective on young people’s aspirations and their mobility out of, and perhaps later back into, farming.

Keywords: Human capital theory; Rural youth; Aspirations; Agriculture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1057/s41287-020-00300-0

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