Food for Thought with Dr. César Briones

Join the Center for Urban Education for "Beyond Nini: If Not School or Work, Then What? A Developmental Reading of Youth Exclusion in Central America" by Dr. César Briones, Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education. Across the capital cities of Central America, millions of young people are labeled "nini," (ni estudia ni trabaja) neither studying nor working, a term that describes a structural condition while quietly judging the people living inside it. This talk asks the question the label avoids: if not school or work, then what? Drawing on Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, Erikson's identity formation, and Marcia's identity status model, we posit that adolescent identity formation is not optional, only its content is. When institutions fail to offer young people agency, mastery, and consequence, those developmental needs do not disappear. They get met elsewhere, inside whatever structures the urban environment actually makes available. In this framework, gang membership, immigration, and criminality function less like identity confusion and more like identity achievement, built from the materials on offer when legitimate ones close off. While the roots of exclusion reach back to early childhood, adolescence and youth are a second window of opportunity, a developmental period second only to early childhood in its capacity to build the socioemotional skills and sense of agency a young person needs. The talk traces this argument through regional data on education, labor markets, and violence exposure across Central America's cities, and closes by making the case for youth development itself, and youth voice within it, as the point of highest leverage for urban policy across the region, turning youth into a nation building assets instead of liabilities for regional stability. A complimentary lunch will be served at 1pm.