Education, aspiration, and mobility in the Karen borderlands: An ethnography of youth transitions amongst the Kwaegabon Plong Karen of southeastern Burma/Myanmar

Thesis

Existing research on education-to-employment transitions in complex and contested settings in the global South is consumed with the debilitating effects of the ‘crisis of youth’ and its negative outcomes in which many emerge un/under-employed. Young people are often depicted as in thrall to this predicament rather than probing their agentive capacities for affirmative action to move beyond the impasse. Consequently, few studies explore how youth transitions relate and respond to wider soci...

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Authors: Dolan, R

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Temporal Mobilities; Democratic Transition; Migration; Aspiration & Agency; (International) Development; Karen Peoples; Social Navigation; Southeast Asia; Youth Mobility; Burma/Myanmar; Ethnography; (Non-State) Education; Socio-Spatial Mobilities
• Subjects: Ethnic identity; Education; Student aspirations; Aspiration; College student mobility; Youth development; Plong/Pwo Karen; Community college students; Minorities--Political activity; Welfare rights movement; Democracy and education; Burma/Mynamar; Sgaw Karen (Southeast Asian people); Young volunteers in community development; Community development; Buddhist Welfare; Intra-Ethnic Politics; Civil Society - Burma/Myanmar; Student movements; Graduate student mobility; Moralities; Ethnic groups; Community Protection; Community college student development programs; Southeast Asia; Borderlands; Buddhist Karen Communities - Burma/Myanmar; Forced migration