Constructing the Future

Maike Birzle is a PhD student and research assistant at the Center for African Studies, University of Basel. She studied Applied African Studies (B.A) at the Universität Bayreuth and Social Anthropology (M.A.) at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. Before she started working on Burkina Faso she did extensive fi eldwork on youth in The Gambia, as her master thesis focused on agency and social navigation of rural Gambian male youth.

Susann Ludwig is a PhD-student and research assistant at the Centre for African Studies in Basel. She studied Social Anthropology (M.A.) at the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg. Her MA-thesis focused on the connection between neoliberal policy and work among academic youth in Bamako, Mali, and drew attention the phenomenon of débrouillage as a smart and creative entrepreneurial strategy deployed by urban academic youth.