Author: Gayle, Herbert
Title: 'Forced Ripe!' How Youth of Three Selected Working Class Communities Assess their Identity, Support, and Authority System, including their Relationship with the Jamaican Police - A Participatory Ethnographic Evaluation and Research (PEER)
Summary: The focus of this research is on youth forced ripe and their relationship with the institutions and services on which they depend. In Jamaica the term forced ripe or fouce ripe is used most commonly to describe fruits, especially mangoes that are overexposed to sunlight but lack the other nutritional support to be tasty. Forced ripe fruits are deficient. They are poor tasting and therefore easily discarded. From the ground a forced ripe mango may seem fit but is a disappointment when it is plucked from the branches. Many adults use the metaphor fouce ripe to describe youth, but do so without fully assessing its implications. Many make an assumption of agency, which suggests that the youth are largely responsible for their development or graduation into adulthood and therefore are to blame for the problems or challenges associated with the decisions they make. This position seems to ignore the fact that youth depend on several social services and institutions to develop or at least survive. Many adults ignore the social structures of the Jamaican society, the lack of opportunities and the various forms of abuse that youth endure which force them to become adults prematurely. Much more nurture and protection are needed from the social institutions on which working class youth depend if they are to become properly riped fruits or young adults who can make a positive contribution to themselves, their families, their communities and the Jamaican society. The Forced Ripe Report is divided into four sections. Section (i) is an introduction and sets out the policy context of the study, as well as provides a brief synopsis of the findings. Section (ii) is the methodology. It outlines the objectives of the study, explains the selection of the three communities, and discusses the PEER method and how it was employed in the study. Section (iii) is the findings and core of the study. Section (iv), the final part presents some suggestions for strengthening agency and transforming social institutions in ways that empower young people, especially those of the working class.
Details: Jamaica: The University of the West Indies, 2007. 89p.
Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 5, 2012 at http://198.170.76.2/jamspred/Forced_Ripe_Gayle_with_Levy.pdf
Year: 2007
Country: Jamaica
URL:
Shelf Number: 123978
Keywords:
Child Abuse and Neglect (Jamaica)Child MaltreatmentEthnography |
