Contents
1 Introduction................................................................................................................................... 150
2 Young People's Resilience in Contexts of War: A Three-Part Resilience
Framework...................................................................................................................................
1512.1 TranscendingAssumptionsofTrauma.................................................................................... 151
2.2 Resilience and Individual Agency...................................................................................... 152
2.3 Social Support in Coping with Conflict.............................................................................. 153
2.4 Meaning Attribution and Coping........................................................................................ 154
3 La debrouille: A Dominant Approach to Coping in the Kivus..................................................... 156
3.1 Living with “Intelligence”.................................................................................................... 157
3.2 Survival and Risk Taking..................................................................................................... 158
3.3 Submission and Defeat........................................................................................................ 160
4 How Effective Coping Should Not Be Confused with Resilience (And How Coping
May Itself Contribute to Perpetuating Cycles of Violence)........................................................ 162
5 Conclusion..................................................................................................................................... 164
References............................................................................................................................................ 164
Abstract
This chapter discusses resilience and capacities for coping among young people in the highly violent context of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
It synthesizes and draws upon the psychological resilience literature and uses this to elaborate a three-part resilience framework for examining how young people cope with the adversities and constraints of entrenched military and structural violence. Based on fieldwork conducted in North and South Kivu in 2010 and 2011, the chapter presents narratives offered by three young people who explain their daily challenges of survival and development and who describe the copingC. Seymour (*)
Department of Development Studies, University of London, School of Oriental and African
Studies, London, UK
e-mail: clseymour@yahoo.com
© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017 149
C. Harker et al. (eds.), Conflict, Violence and Peace, Geographies of Children and YoungPeople 11, DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-038-4_9 mechanisms they rely upon. The concept of la debrouille, or “finding one's way,” is described as a common coping approach in the DRC. The chapter concludes by arguing that young people's capacity to effectively cope with the constraints imposed by violence should not be confused with resilience and should even be considered as part of the social and political processes which contribute to perpetuating the structures of violence which young people in the DRC are so busy trying to survive.
Keywords
Agency • Coping • Democratic Republic of the Congo • La debrouille • Resilience • Violence • War • Young people
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