Boyhood Studies

Global North theories of being “young” or a “man” do not translate neatly onto the everyday lives of young men in the Global South (Jeffrey and McDowell 2004). The specters of colonialism, postcolonialism, and global capitalist inequalities, as well as the various politics of race, caste, class, sexualities, religion, and local histories, powerfully shape both the countries of the Global South as well as youth masculinities therein (Nayak 2016; Philip 2022; Mani and Krishnamurthy 2021). In such a context, this special issue seeks to put forward an empirically grounded understanding of youth masculinities from perspectives emerging and grounded in the Global South. The specific challenges, opportunities, desires, and practices of young men from the Philippines, India, South Africa, and Senegal, as well as various other contexts covered in this special issue, reveal the broader global dynamics shaping youth lives today.

This article offers insights into how ‘boyhoods’ are shaped by class locations and experiences of poverty and problem-solving in the central Indian city of Indore. In their classed and gendered efforts to find routes to socioeconomic survival and mobility, schoolboys construct competing understandings of the relative (im)morality of violence, romance, and vigilantism. Drawing upon interviews with boys aged 13-17years, the paper unpacks how these views are shaped by caste patriarchy, urban poverty and economic informality, and local politics centering on right-wing nationalism in Indore. In the process, this article responds to calls by childhood scholars to rethink ‘agency’ in a relational and contextual way and offers accounts of marginalized masculinities that hold out possibilities for a ‘social democratic transformation’ as imagined by Raewyn Connell.

This article explores how young novice monks, studying at a Buddhist monastic school in a rural province of northern Thailand, come to understand their developing masculinities. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2021, the article considers the plural forms of masculinity that novice monks are exposed to. In line with dominant strands of theory in gender studies, masculinity here is understood as taking on several potential forms. Forms adhering to normative understandings of how masculinity should be expressed are examined, with a focus on monastic masculinity as it has been described in Buddhist contexts, alongside local Thai lay-masculinities. By examining how novice monks interpret idealized archetypes conforming to each of these masculine forms, the article argues for the value of analyzing youth masculinities in light of normative frameworks.

Masculinity constructions and experiences among black/African adolescent boys in Global South contexts have often been studied from a conceptual framework based on issues, vulnerabilities, and troubles in ways that obscures these boys’ resilient and agential capabilities through which they resist vulnerable masculinity. In this article, we draw upon data from qualitative interviews to explore the experiences and constructions of vulnerable and resilient masculinities among schoolboys heading child-headed homes in a poverty context in a South African township. In demonstrating how vulnerable and resilient masculinities manifest among these boys, we suggest how the emerging vulnerabilities could be addressed towards strengthening their resilience.

This article examines how the commodity cycle of natural gas alters the aspirations of youth working in the informal sector. Focusing on the gas industry in Mtwara, Tanzania, this article explores how the development of the industry influences the work aspirations of young men seeking financial independence. Drawing from ethnographic research, participant observation, and interviews with young men between 2020 and 2022, I demonstrate how working as motorcycle taxi drivers during the “gas rush” availed young men a newfound respectability linked to their upward socioeconomic mobility, a key marker in their transition to adulthood. As one of the more accessible and lucrative livelihoods, this article demonstrates how becoming a motorcycle driver acted as a transient conduit in their dual transitions from school to work and transitions from young men to adults.

The study of men and masculinity is receiving increased attention within South Asia generally, and Nepal specifically. Within this emerging empirical context, this article analyzes the findings of a study undertaken by the UK NGO Saferworld in collaboration with two Nepali NGOs in Eastern Nepal in 2014. This qualitative study used a range of methods, including the participatory learning and reflections approach involving young men aged 16–25 years. Alongside gendered opportunities through negotiating their (young) masculinities, our young male participants felt significant pressures, confusion, and even frustrations. Our article considers changing expectations and opportunities with regard to gender equality and in gender roles, contributing unique insights into the performance of youth masculinities in post-conflict (post 2006) Nepal.

Chowkhani, Ketaki. 2024. The Limits of Sexuality Education: Love, Sex, and Adolescent Masculinities in Urban India. New York: Routledge. 138 pages.