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Young people in rural areas often face barriers when accessing participation opportunities in their municipalities. This affects their voices being heard and their ability to create change. Even though almost half the world’s population lives in rural areas, rural young people’s activism is often overlooked in the literature. In addition, when young people’s activism is explored in empirical research, conceptualisations of activism and methods are often not tailored to rural areas. This chapter, thus, adds to our understanding of young people’s activism in rural municipalities by drawing on a mixed methods case study including thirteen focus groups (FGs; n = 35) and a questionnaire (n = 106) with young people aged 13–17, and semi-structured interviews (n = 11) with teachers from one secondary school in a rural municipality in Germany. Five of the FGs were conducted and analysed by Year 10 students, adding unique insights into participants’ experience of activism. In this chapter, activism is conceptualised as one of the multiple dimensions of citizenship. Activism includes demanding systemic change, individually or collectively, which may include refusing to do things, aiming to prevent laws, raising awareness, and making consumer choices. Rather than being full-time activists, the young people in this study were engaged in only a few forms of activism, often carried out ad-hoc, part-time and in connection with other citizenship activities such as volunteering. Spaces for activism included online, the local municipality, everyday spaces such as the supermarket, and school. Participants experienced multiple barriers when engaging in activism including narratives of non-activist young people, age restrictions, power imbalances and few opportunities for creating change, particularly at participants’ school and in their municipalities.

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the multinational oil companies’ (MOCs’) corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in Nigeria. Its special focus is to investigate the impact of Global Memorandum of Understandings (GMOUs) on rural young people involved in non-timber forest products (NTFPs) for sustainable livelihood in Niger Delta, Nigeria.

Data for this study were collected from primary sources, using participatory rural appraisal technique of semi-structured interview questionnaire. The use of participatory research techniques in collecting CSR impact data especially as it concerns the rural young people is because it involves the people being studied, and their views on all the issues are paramount. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. Inferential statistical tool – estimation of logit model was used to test the two research hypothesis.

The results indicate that GMoUs have not given adequate attention to young people as a special target sub-group who live in rural areas and depend mostly on NTFPs. Results also show that a number of factors hindering rural young people from the use and development of NTFPs include a policy vacuum, non-destructive harvesting, and destruction of natural habitats, bushfires, population growths and high demands.

The semi-structured interview questionnaire was directly administered by the researchers with the help of research assistants. The use of local research assistants was because of the inability of the researchers to speak the different local languages and dialects of the many ethnic groups of Ijaws, Ogonis, Ikweres, Etches, Ekpeyes, Ogbas, Engennes, Obolos, Isokos, Nembes, Okirikas, Kalabaris, Urhobos, Iteskiris, Igbos, Ika-Igbos, Ndonis, Orons, Ibenos, Yorubas, Ibibios, Anangs, Efiks, Bekwarras, Binis, Eshans, Etsakos, Owans, Itigidis, Epies, Akokoedos, Yakkurs, etc., in the sampled rural communities.

An appropriate GMoU-intervention framework for sustainable promotion of NTFPs, domestication of NFTPs, improving harvesting and processing techniques are necessary to facilitate good security, reduction of poverty and improved livelihoods, particularly for the economically-marginalized and forest-dependent rural young people is imperative.

Sustainable livelihoods of the forest-dependent rural young people in sub-Saharan Africa would require some focussed CSR interventions on the NTFPs for sustainable livelihood. Facilities pertaining to storage, grading, processing and value addition through the convergence of existing schemes and programmes should be promoted and created. MOCs are in a position to empower the rural young people with information about the market, policy and products to enable the rural people strategizing and accessing returns from NTFPs in sub-Saharan Africa.

This research adds to the literature on multinational enterprises’ CSR initiatives in developing countries and rationale for demands for social projects by host communities. It concludes that business has an obligation to help in solving problems of sustainable livelihood.

Young people are widely known to have poorer outcomes, social status and political representation than older adults. These disadvantages, which have come to be largely normalized in the contemporary context, can be further compounded by other factors, however, and are particularly amplified by coming from a lower social class background. An additional challenge for young people is associated with place, with youth who live in more remote and less urban areas at a higher risk of being socially excluded (Alston & Kent, 2009; Shucksmith, 2004) and/or to face complex and multiple barriers to employment and education than their urban-dwelling peers (Cartmel & Furlong, 2000). Drawing upon interviews and focus groups in a qualitative project with 16 young people and five practitioners, and using Nancy Fraser’s tripartite theory of social justice, this paper highlights the various and interlocking disadvantages experienced by working-class young people moving into and through adulthood in Clackmannanshire, mainland Scotland’s smallest council area.

To evaluate the impact of rural renaissance projects aimed at overcoming issues of accessibility and out‐migration of the younger, more economically active population and to consider what young people feel about education, training and rural living in Ryedale, North Yorkshire.

Twenty Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) 5 projects focus on the 10‐29 age group to improve their confidence, employability and opportunities to encourage them to remain in, or return to, Ryedale. Research includes interviews with project managers and a survey of Year 11 students in four secondary schools to reveal views on education, jobs and rural living. The 320 replies are compared with 378 from a 2001 survey.

Educational attainment is rising. Young people expect to remain in education post‐16, but leave Ryedale for educational and employment opportunities. Job aspirations suggest mismatches between requirements and availability, especially in skilled professional, associate professional and technical fields. Ryedale is increasingly perceived as a pleasant, secure environment; many wish to stay or return eventually.

The surveys feature Year 11 pupils. Further work might examine different age groups, areas and factors encouraging young people to stay in rural areas.

The SRB 5 projects produced positive impacts, however, scope remains for greater representation of young peoples' needs and inputs into local services and decision‐making.

The paper offers a temporal comparison of surveys and projects related to young people in a rural area. It is of value to policy‐makers and educationalists examining young peoples' perceptions and out‐migration influences.

This chapter is concerned with exploring the lived experience of welfare-to-work policy in rural Wales through the lens of participant observation with young people undertaking the initial course that represents their first encounter with the New Deal for Young People (NDYP).¹ I wish to respond to calls for qualitative explorations into marginalised rural life through discussing policy delivery personnel's² views of unemployed young people, and how some young people respond to the experience of being a rural welfare-to-work participant. The terms with which welfare practitioners speak about their clients and the client experience itself are both useful ways to look closely at the operation of the UK welfare programme, drawing out particular issues arising in the countryside. The chapter begins with a brief outline of the NDYP as an early mandatory welfare-to-work programme in the United Kingdom, before summarising some of the characteristics of youth unemployment. Drawing on empirical research undertaken in central Wales, I then outline some ways in which frontline practitioners characterise the 18–24-year olds with whom they work, before a detailed look at some individual stories from fieldwork with the young people themselves.

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of multinational oil companies in Nigeria. Its main focus is to investigate the impact of the global memorandum of understanding (GMoU) on equipping rural young people with essential farming skills and knowledge for the adoption and application of modern agricultural inputs in the Niger Delta region.

This paper adopts a survey research technique, aimed at gathering information from a representative sample of the population, as it is essentially cross-sectional, describing and interpreting the current situation. A total of 800 rural young people were sampled across the oil producing region.

The results from the use of combined propensity score matching and logit model indicate that the GMoU model has a significant impact on the development of informal farm entrepreneurship generally, but somewhat undermined rural young people in the targeted agricultural clusters.

This suggests that youth-specific CSR farm projects can be effective in providing young people with the extra push needed to tackle the knowledge gap and poor agronomic that erect the below-per yield and lack of competitiveness of small-holder farmers in the region.

It implies that a coherent and integrated CSR response from the business would be necessary to unlock investment opportunities on young people in farms for agricultural competitiveness and food security in Africa.

This study adds to the literature on informal farm entrepreneurship and rural communities’ debate in sub-Saharan Africa. It concludes that business has obligation to help in solving problems of youth unemployment in developing countries.

Examines connections between family life, self‐esteem, health and lifestyles in a sample of around 1,700 young people aged 14 to 16 years old in eight rural locations in northern Scotland. Young people’s accounts of family life were characterised in terms of quality of relationships, support, family‐centredness, control and conflict. A minority of rural youth were highly negative about home life, and one in six reported low self‐esteem and poor mental health. Certain characteristics contained in young people’s accounts of family life were found to be associated with feelings of self‐esteem, subjective wellbeing and health behaviours. Additionally, self‐esteem was associated with self‐assessments of health, but not directly with health‐relevant behaviour, contrary to a prevalent assumption in health education. More detailed analysis shows that links between perceived family life and self‐esteem and health behaviour are felt quite separately from each other. However, the impact that young persons’ feelings about their home life have on self‐esteem does help to explain links between family practices and health, particularly mental health, in youth.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of social context on young people's sexual lives and sexual health, and to highlight the need for HIV prevention and sexual health programmes which better take into account these contextual influences.

The paper draws on findings from a multi‐method, qualitative study involving young people aged between 11‐24 years, conducted in three rural areas in Uganda. Data were collected by means of 52 single‐sex focus group discussions, 117 in‐depth interviews, and further participatory research with 23 of these young men and women. Contextual information was gathered through interviews with parents (17), teachers (7), religious leaders (7), local clan leaders (6), community‐based NGO/CBO workers (12) and local government staff (33).

Local beliefs about age and gender suggest that intimate relationships and sexual behaviour among young people are forbidden, or at least should be hidden. Social norms produced and reproduced both by adults and young people themselves increase the likelihood of secretive, unprotected sexual relations, and inhibit young people's ability to seek sexual health‐related support and advice.

An understanding of these contextual influences has important implications for improving the design of HIV prevention and sexual health programming in rural communities in Uganda.

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the impact of a growth enhancement support scheme (GESS) on youth development in informal farm entrepreneurship in Nigeria. Its special focus is to investigate the impact of the GESS on rural youths’ adoption of new technologies needed to sustainably increase food security in Nigeria.

This paper adopts a survey research technique, aimed at gathering information from a representative sample of the population, as it is essentially cross-sectional, describing and interpreting the current situation. A total of 800 rural youths were sampled across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.

The result from the use of a bivariate probit model indicates that the GESS has a significant impact on rural youths’ innovations in farming.

This suggests that information and communication technology could provide new opportunities for making farming more interesting and enterprising for rural young people.

It implies that while old male and female farmers are less likely to adopt the new farming technologies needed to achieve Nigeria’s agricultural transformation agenda (ATA), a younger generation can help introduce new technologies, while also learning from traditional methods.

This research adds to the literature on informal farm entrepreneurship and rural communities’ debate in developing countries. It concludes that engaging youths in GESS should form the foundation of the ATA in Nigeria, which, in turn, would offer adequate combination of new and traditional solution to address the challenges of food insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa.