“Creating poverty chances”: young people confront gambling harms in Malawi

Mtema, O., Singano, I. “S.”, McGee, D., Yakobe, Y., Sichali, J., Makamo, M., Reith, G. and Bunn, C. (2023) “Creating poverty chances”: young people confront gambling harms in Malawi. Sociological Research Online, (doi: 10.1177/13607804231207152) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

Commercialised gambling products have spread rapidly through African countries in recent years and have been woven into the everyday experiences of young people. Research to date has documented this phenomenon through conventional social science methodologies, establishing an important body of knowledge. Absent from this work is research that adopts participatory and creative methods, often argued to be particularly well suited to empowering marginalised groups to co-produce research. In this piece, we describe a co-creative participatory approach to working with 24 young people in Malawi to explore experiences of commercial gambling and its impacts on their communities. Our approach was co-developed with the young people and produced a substantial body of community interviews, photovoice pieces, and creative representations of the research findings. Here, we focus on a song written and recorded by one of the young people that draws on and represents themes of distress, addiction, poverty, and false hope, which were present in the data the young people generated across the study.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Bunn, Dr Christopher and Reith, Professor Gerda
• Authors: Mtema, O., Singano, I. “S.”, McGee, D., Yakobe, Y., Sichali, J., Makamo, M., Reith, G., and Bunn, C.
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General); H Social Sciences > HM Sociology; M Music and Books on Music > M Music; N Fine Arts > NX Arts in general; R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Journal Name: Sociological Research Online
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• ISSN: 1360-7804
• ISSN (Online): 1360-7804
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Sociological Research Online 2023
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons license

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
309893		BA Youth Futures	Christopher Bunn	British Academy (BRITACAD)	RC-FH1247 / ZR19-03922	S&PS - Institute of Health & Wellbeing (Social Sciences)