Kenyan Youth Scenarios Workshops

This proposal seeks joint support from the Kellogg Institute and the Ford Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity for a study of the long-term effects of public interest scenario work on participants’ personal and public trajectories. Working with Kenyan partners, we will do a follow-up survey, interviews, and focus groups with the 300 youth leaders who participated in an intensive participatory scenario process in 2010-2011 known as the Kenyan Youth Scenarios (KEYS). We will examine regional, institutional, and demographic differences in the impact of the scenario work on participants’ (a) educational and job/career choices; (b) social networks; (c) work habits and problem-solving strategies; (d) public involvement; and (d) views about the future of Kenya. This work contributes to the study of both democracy and development by examining Kenyan citizens’ use of foresight techniques in public deliberations over the political, economic and social future of their country.