Burning Ambition: Education, Arson, and Learning Justice in Kenya

Author:   Elizabeth Cooper
Publisher:   University of Wisconsin Press
ISBN:  

9780299337902


Pages:   232
Publication Date:   31 July 2022
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Our Price $211.07 Quantity:  
Add to Cart

Share |

Burning Ambition: Education, Arson, and Learning Justice in Kenya


Add your own review!

Overview

Burning Ambition explores how young people learn to understand and influence the workings of power and justice in their society. Since 2008, hundreds of secondary schools across Kenya have been targeted with fire by their students. Through an in-depth study of Kenyan secondary students’ use of arson, Elizabeth Cooper asks why. With insightful ethnographic analysis, she shows that these young students deploy arson as moral punishment for perceived injustices and arson proves an effective tactic in their politics from below.   Drawing from years of research and a rich array of sources, Cooper accounts for how school fires stoke a national conversation about the limited means for ordinary Kenyans, and especially youth, to peacefully influence the governance of their own lives. Further, Cooper argues that Kenyan students’ actions challenge the existing complacency with the globalized agenda of “education for all,” demonstrating that submissive despondency is not the only possible response to the failed promises of education to transform material and social inequalities.

Full Product Details

Author:   Elizabeth Cooper
Publisher:   University of Wisconsin Press
Imprint:   University of Wisconsin Press
Weight:   0.211kg
ISBN:  

9780299337902


ISBN 10:   0299337901
Pages:   232
Publication Date:   31 July 2022
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

Reviews

Cooper makes a valuable contribution to the existing literature, extending discussions of Kenyan political culture and moral economic relations into new and valuable spaces. The author convincingly helps us understand the active role that Kenyan youths take in forms of resistance. The voices of the students and the anecdotes illustrate the ways that their experiences are typical within this system and the inclusion of Kenyan intellectual perspectives helps us see how these issues are understood and debated within Kenya. This fine book presents rich ethnographic material that is expertly situated at an important theoretical juncture. --Megan A. Styles, University of Illinois Springfield


Author Information

Elizabeth Cooper is an assistant professor in the School for International Studies at Simon Fraser University and a social anthropologist who conducts research concerning children and youth, inequality, and violence, with a primary focus on Kenya.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions
Latest Reading Guide

lgn

al

Shopping Cart
Your cart is empty
Shopping cart
Mailing List