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Tatek Abebe
Førsteamanuensis
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Dr Tatek Abebe
Education
B.A (Distinction) in Geography, Addis Ababa University; M.Phil in Development Studies, PhD in Geography, NTNU.
Research Interests
Geographies of children and youth; theorizing childhoods; child-focused research methdolgies and ethics; life-course perspectives; poverty, rural and urban livelihoods; orphanhood and the social impacts of AIDS; social change in Africa.
Current Teaching
- Children and Development in the Global South (Convenor)
- Methods and Ethics in Childhood Studies (Convenor)
- Urban Children and Youth in Africa (NTNU/AAU, Co-taught with Dr Nicola Ansell of Brunel University)
- Geographies of Health and Development (Contributor)
- Introduction to African Studies (Contributor).
Projects
- Coping with AIDS: the Vulnerability and Livelihood Strategies of Orphans in Ethiopia, Principal Investigator, NOK 1.97 million, Research Council of Norway, 2004-2007 (with Prof. Asbjørn Aase)
- Poverty and the Livelihood Pathways of Young People in Rural and Urban Ethiopia (Post-doctoral Fellowship 2008-2010), Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology Mangement, NTNU.
- Children, Young People and Local Knowledge in Ethiopia and Zambia, Affiliated Researcher; NOK 5 million, Norwegian Council for Collaboration in Research and Education (NUFU 2007-2011) Dr Anne Trine Kjørholt and Dr Fikre Desalegn (Project Coordinators).
- A Literature Review on the Linkages Between Youth Participation and Sustainable Urban Development. NOK 500 000, Lead Researcher (2010-2011, with Dr Anne Trine Kjørholt), United Nations Program for Human Settlement, UN-Habitat.
- Nordic Network of African Childhood and Youth Research (NoNACYR: 2011-2013), Coordinator, NOK 900 000, NordForsk.
Publications
- (2012). Abebe, T. Conclusion: Orphanhood, poverty and the challenges for care: review of global policy trends. In: J. D. Bailey (ed) Orphan Care: A Comparative View. Kumarian Press.
- (2012). Abebe, T. Interdependent rights and agency: children's role in collective livelihood strategies in rural Ethiopia. In: Nieuwenhuys, O. and K. Hanson (eds.) Living Rights: Theorizing Children's Rights in International Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- (2012). Skovdal, M. and Abebe, T. Reflexivity and dialogue: methodological and socio-ethical dilemmas in research with AIDS-affected children in East Africa. Ethics, Policy and Environment, 15 (1) 77-96.
- (2012). Abebe, T. AIDS-affected children, family collectives and the social dynamics of care in Ethiopia. Geoforum 43 (2012), 540-550.
- (2011). Abebe, T. and Bessell, S. Dominant discourses, debates and silences on child labour in Africa and Asia. Third World Quarterly 32 (4), 765–786.
- (2011). Abebe, T. with Kjørholt, A T. Young People, Participation, and Sustainable Development in an Urbanizing World. Nairobi: United Nations Human Settlement Program.
- (2011). Abebe, T. Child labour, gender and schooling in Ethiopia: rural children’s perspectives. In: Evers, S., Notermans, C. and E. van Ommering, E. (eds.) Not Just a Victim: The Child as a Catalyst and Witness of Contemporary Africa, pp. 117–172. Leiden: Brill.
- (2010). Abebe, T. and Skovdal, M. Livelihoods, care and the familial relations of orphans in eastern Africa. AIDS Care. 22 (5), 590-576.
- (2010). Abebe, T. Beyond the 'orphan burden': understanding care for and by AIDS-affected children in Africa. Geography Compass 4 (5), 460-474.
- (2009). Ennew, J., Abebe, T. and Kjørholt, AT. The Right to be Properly Researched: How to Do Rights-based, Scientific Research with Children. Bangkok: Black on White Publications.
- (2009). Abebe, T. Begging as a livelihood pathway of street children in Addis Ababa. Forum for Development Studies, 36 (2), 275-300.
- (2009). Abebe, T. Child labour in the global South: a review and critical commentary. Barn/Nordic Journal of Child Research 2009 (3-4), 11-28.
- (2009). Abebe, T. Shik'alla: the survival strategies of Ethiopian child beggars. In: S. Ege, H. Aspen, B. Teferra and S. Bekele, (eds.) Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Ethiopian Studies. pp. 1033-1047.
- (2009). Abebe, T. Multiple methods, complex dilemmas: negotiating socio-ethical spaces in participatory research with disadvantaged children. Children’s Geographies 7 (4), 451-465.
- (2009). Abebe, T. Orphanhood, poverty and the care dilemma: review of global policy trends. Social Work and Society 7 (1), 70-85.
- (2009). Abebe, T. and Kjorholt, AT. Social actors and victims of exploitation: working children in the cash economy of Ethiopia’s South. Childhood 16 (2): 175-194.
- (2008). Abebe, T. The Ethiopian family collective and child agency. Barn/Nordic Journal of Child Research 3 (2008): 89-108.
- (2008). Abebe, T. Trapped between disparate worlds: the livelihoods, socialisation and schooling contexts of children in rural Ethiopia. Childhoods Today, 2 (1) 1-24, University of Sheffield.
- (2008). Abebe, T. Earning a living on the margins: begging, street work and the socio-spatial experiences of children in Addis Ababa. Geografiska Annaler, Series B: Human Geography. 90 (3): 271-284.
- (2008). Abebe, T. Ethiopian Childhoods: A Case Study of the Lives of Orphans and Working Children. Published Doctoral Thesis No. 48, NTNU.
- (2008). Abebe, T. Changing livelihoods, changing childhoods: patterns of children’s work in rural southern Ethiopia. In Aitken, S., R. Lund and AT Kjørholt (eds.) Global Childhoods: Globalization, Development and Young People Routledge, pp. 77-94.
- (2007). Abebe, T.and A. Aase. Children, AIDS and the politics of orphan care in Ethiopia: the extended family revisited. Social Science and Medicine 64 (10) 2058-2069.
- (2007). Abebe, T. Changing livelihoods, changing childhoods: patterns of children’s work in rural southern Ethiopia. Children’s Geographies 5 (1-2): 77-93.
- (2006). Abebe, T. Rural children’s work in Gedeo, southern Ethiopia: continuity and change. Acta Geographica–Trondheim, Series B, Nr. 10. Department of Geography, NTNU, Trondheim.
- (2005). Abebe, T. Geographical dimensions of AIDS orphanhood in sub-Saharan Africa. Norwegian Journal of Geography 59 (1) 37-47.
- (2002). Abebe, T. Methodological problems and approaches to researching ‘at risk’ children. In; Setten, G. and S. Rudsar (eds.) Geographical Methods: Power and Morality, Conference Proceeding, Series A, No. 2, 27-49. Trondheim: NTNU.
Presentations
- Living off markets: young agricultural entrepreneurs and cash crops in Ethiopia. 11th Nordic Youth Research Symposium: Global / Local Youth – New Civic Cultures, Rights and Responsibilities, 15-17 June 2011 Turku.
- Participatory ethics in research with marginalized children. Children and Knowledge Production. 3rd International Conference of the Finnish Society of Childhood Studies. 9-12 June 2010, Jyvaskyla.
- Gendered work and Schooling in rural Ethiopia. Symposium on Childhood Studies in Africa – Ecology, Representation and Culture. 20th International Conference of the Society of Behavioral Development, ISSBD 18 -23 July 2010, Lusaka.
- Producing ethical spaces in qualitative research with vulnerable young people. Paper presented at a session on Qualitative Research Methodologies, Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, 14 – 18th April 2010, Washington DC.
- Ethics and participation in rights-based research with vulnerable children. Invited speaker on the RTD on "Migration and Dislocation", Children's Rights at a cross-roads: 20th anniversary conference of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 29 November - 2 December, Addis Ababa.
- Photographs of/by Ethiopian children: working, playing, living and learning. Digital Photo exhibition, Children's Rights at a cross-roads: 20th anniversary conference of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 29 November - 2 December 2009, Addis Ababa.
- Participatory methds and ethics in childhood research: reflections on fieldwork with children in rural and urban Ethiopia. Invited speaker on NUFU-funded International Childhood Studies seminar, 24 - 27th November, 2009, Addis Ababa.
- Gendered work and schooling in rural southern Ethiopia: what children say. 17th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies (ICES-09), 2-6th November 2009, Addis Ababa.
- Young people in contemporary Africa [session organizer], Nordic Africa Days - 09, Africa - In Search of Alternatives, 1-3 October, Trondheim.
- Young peoples' spaces of livelihoods in post-rural development contexts of Ethiopia. 3rd Nordic Geographers Meeting, Change – Society, Environment and Science in Transition, 8 – 11th June 2009, Turku.
- Negotiating marginality: young beggars' socio-spatial lives in Addis Ababa. Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, 22nd–27th March 2009, Las Vegas.
- Interdependent agency: children's participation in collective livelihood strategies in rural Ethiopia. Living Rights: Theorizing Children's Rights in International Development, 19-20th January 2009, Sion.
- Contemporary childhoods in Ethiopia: a socio-spatial overview. 6th October 2008, Invited speaker, Dilla University.
- Child labor in rural Ethiopia: children’s perspectives. African Children in Focus: A Paradigm Shift in Methodology and Theory? Interdisciplinary Conference, 18-19 September 2008, Leiden.
- Livelihoods, care and the familial relations of orphans in Gedeo, Ethiopia. Child and Youth Research in the 21st Century: A Critical Appraisal, International Conference organized by International Childhood and Youth Research Network (ICYRNet), May 28-29, 2008, European University of Cyprus, Nicosia.
- Becoming and being orphan in contemporary Ethiopia. Analytic Abstractions, Lived Realities: Politics, Law and Economy in Africa International interdisciplinary research conference, 13-14 May 2008, Trondheim.
- Family collectives, interdependence and children’s agency: an Ethiopian study. Invited Speaker on 25th Anniversary Conference of the Norwegian Centre for Child Research, Childhood – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. 21-23rd April, 2008, Trondheim.
- Summary of Ethiopian Childhoods: A Case Study of the Lives of Orphans and Working Children, PhD defence presentation. 22 Feb 2008, Trondheim.
- The Ethiopian Family Collective and Child Agency. Public lecture in partial fulfillment for the degree of philosophae (PhD) in Geography, 22 Feb 2008, NTNU, Trondheim.
- Current literature and research networks concerning African children. Seminar on International Childhood Studies, 27-28 Nov., 2007, University of Lusaka, Lusaka.
- Shik'alla: business boys and girls in the context of begging in Addis Ababa. 16th International Conference on Ethiopian Studies, 2-6th July 2007, Trondheim.
- Working children’s perspectives of health and well-being in urban Ethiopia. 2nd Nordic Geographers Meeting, Meeting New Waves of Globalisation, 14-17th June, Bergen.
- Doing development right: the challenges of childcare in the context of poverty and livelihood transitions in Ethiopia. 5th African conference on Child Abuse and Neglect, 27th -29th March 2007. Kampala.
- Childhood is not meant to be like this': contesting representations of children in black and white. Coastline seminar, Representations of children and childhood in a globalised world; 28.09.2006 - 01.10.2006 (Joint paper; presented by Kjorholt, AT.), Lofoten.
- ‘It takes a whole village to raise a child’: orphanhood, poverty and the disrupted landscape of care. Norwegian Association for Development Researchers Annual conference: Ethics, Development and Human Rights, Sept 13-15 2006, Oslo.
- Continuity and change in rural children’s work in Gedeo, southern Ethiopia. Invited speaker on research seminar/ PhD course, Researching children and childhood in a globalised world, 29-31st May 2006, Trondheim.
- Doing fieldwork with orphans and working children. Norwegian Centre for Child Research, 24 May 2006, NTNU, Trondheim.
- Ecology as metaphor: the cultural politics of orphan care in Ethiopia. Childhoods 2005: Growing up in emerging and transforming societies, June 29-July 3, 2005, Oslo.
- Children, AIDS and the politics of orphanhood in Ethiopia. Nordic Africa Institute; June 22, 2005, Uppsala.
- Conditioned and transformed childhoods in Ethiopia. International Workshop, The Global Child: Globalization, Development and Local Constructions of Childhood, Norwegian Centre for Child Research, 21-24 March 2005, Trondheim.
- Globalisation and the social construction of orphanhood. Forum for Globalisation Studies, NTNU, 24 December 2004, Trondheim.
- Using indices as a research tradition: methodological reflections on research with children in southern Ethiopia. 3rd multi-disciplinary conference of Unity University College, June 22-25 2003, Addis Ababa.
- The link between academic research and development practice. Save the Children Norway, April 24, 2002, Oslo.
- Research with children ‘at risk’ in southern Ethiopia. Norwegian Association of Geographers Annual Conference, Geographical Methods – Power and Morality on Geography, 5th – 6th April 2002, Trondheim.
Popular disseminations/Media appearances
- 'Hjelp til følerdrelose barn', Adresseavisen, 24th September 2009.
- 'Vi forstår ikke barna i Afrika' Adresseavisen, 3rd June 2009 p. 34-35.
- 'Vestlig barndomsideal fremmed for Afrika' (English translation –'Western childhood ideals foreign to Africa' Gemini, 2009: (2) 16-17.
- 'Aids i Etiopia: - Foreldreløse barn en ressurs' (English translation: AIDS in Ethiopia: orphans as resources to extended families) http://www.forskning.no/Artikler/2005/november/1133361128.33
- 'The politics of orphanhood: an Ethiopian study' IPP-SHR - International Program of Psycho-Social Health Research (IPP-SHR), Podcast No 22, 2008. Central Queensland University, Australia. http://www.ipp-shr.cqu.edu.au/podcasts/?id=29
Other Activities
- Thesis examiner, M.Phil in Development Studies, M.Phil in Globalization Studies, M.Phil in Human Development (NTNU); MPhil in Gender and Development (U of Bergen).
- Facilitator of several capacity building workshops in Ethiopia and Norway on 'Doing Participatory Research with Children' (led by Dr Judith Ennew).
- Editorial Board Member of Childhood.
- Board Member of the African Network of Child Rights Research, CODESRIA.
- Peer review of manuscripts for journals and book proposal in childhood studies, geography and development studies.
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1. Ethiopian Childhoods. A Case Study of the Lives of Orphans and Working Children (2004-2008)
PhD Thesis summary
This article-based thesis explores two interrelated dimensions of contemporary childhoods namely orphanhood and children’s work. It discusses the lives of children and young people in the context of poverty and HIV/AIDS and their place in daily and generational reproduction in two contrasting research settings of Gedeo (rural) and Addis Ababa (urban) in Ethiopia.
The arguments presented in various chapters are conceptually and empirically grounded in the interface between children’s geographies and development studies. As a research contribution in children’s geographies, this study maps out how orphans and working children in Ethiopia go about their daily lives and the ways in which place and space matter in shaping those ‘experiences, opportunities, life chances and realities’. The multiple meanings of children’s place – the spatial, social and relational – are given particular emphasis. First, the thesis discusses the lives of children by focusing on how place – rural and urban geographies – influences their work, livelihoods and wider childhood experiences. It also highlights how age, gender, household livelihood strategies, poverty, and rural or urban backgrounds mesh together to shape children’s work and future life chances. Second, it examines the ways in which extended family households, which culturally perform the role of care for orphans (including those in the context of HIV/AIDS), have spatially different (and similar) functions and/or capacities. Third, the ways in which children negotiate agency and competence and their place in society are elucidated. The focus here is the shifting positions of children within families and socio-generational hierarchies.
With respect to research in development studies, the thesis situates children’s productive and reproductive activities at the heart of livelihoods, poverty and socio-economic transformations. It discusses how children negotiate the socio-spatial and spatio-temporal dimensions of their lives in interrelated structural, geographical, socio-economic, and cultural contexts. Even though the purview from which the materials are derived is local, the case studies in the thesis move between local and global processes. This is done to demonstrate the impacts of local political economy and national priorities related to development in children’s daily lives and to highlight the need for an analysis of both immediate and broader politico-economic contexts and the ways in which children negotiate growing up in these contexts. In doing so, the research explores how interrelated global processes (e.g. HIV/AIDS, deepening rural and urban poverty and neo-liberal trade-driven shifts in livelihood strategies) are affecting children’s lives and their families in real time and real spaces in Ethiopia.
The thesis consists of nine chapters. The first four chapters respectively document the Introduction, Concepts and Theory, Methodology and Synthesis. The remaining five chapters comprise of articles that are published in international journals discussing young people’s perspectives on orphanhood, care, livelihoods, work and intergenerational relationships.
See book review of "Ethiopian Childhoods: A Case Study of the Lives of Orphans and Working Children" by Olga Nieuwenhuys, Cindi Katz and Haakon Lein in Norwegian Journal of Geography 62 (4), pp. 305 - 306.
Keywords: Childhood, orphans, HIV/AIDS, poverty, livelihoods, Ethiopia
The research and fieldwork trips to Ethiopia are funded by the Research Council of Norway through its program on "Development paths in the South - Globalization and Marginalization", for which I am most grateful.
2. Post-doctoral research: Poverty and the Life Paths of Young People in Rural and Urban Ethiopia (2008-2010)
Building on my PhD, I carry out research on how poverty affects the daily, working and spatial lives of young people in rural and urban Ethiopia. This longitudinal research focuses in particular on the ways in which the lives and livelihoods of children and young people change over time (temporality) and how poverty, age and gender intersect to shape their chioces of strategies as well as mobility patterns in contrasting geographical environments (spatiality). Fieldwork is in progress in order to explore children's participation in productive and reproductive activities whereby I document – using a variety of participatory approaches –their perspectives of what they do in terms of work, where, how, with whom and, most importantly, what they think about their involvement in these activities. The empirical material from the field will be juxtaposed to contemporary debates in geographies of childhood and youth on how young people reproduce space and place in different contexts.
The research is financed by Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology Management, NTNU.
3. Children, Young People and Local Knowledge in Ethiopia and Zambia (2007-2011)
I take part in research and capacity building activities of Dilla University (Ethiopia) and University of Zambia (Zambia) financed by the Norwegian Program for Collaboration in Research and Higher Education (NUFU).
4. Youth, Participation and Sustainable Development in an Urbanizing World: Opportunities and Challenges (2010-2011, Lead Researcher, with Dr Anne Trine Kjørholt)
This literature review appraises current academic and policy oriented research on young people’s involvements in projects that have implications for sustainable urban development. It aims to examine the state-of-art of knowledge on the lives and agency of urban youth in the context of global South and identify significant gaps for research.
The review is commissioned by UN-Habitat and has the following specific objectives:
a) To examine current research on the social, spatial, demographic, economic, and political contexts of young people’s participation in the urban south
b) To document notable examples of regional and international research initiatives that focus on urban youth and sustainable development;
c) To identify the challenges that youth in the developing world face; and
d) To identify critical gaps for further evidence-based research on urban youth.
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