In contexts marked by economic inequality, insecure employment, and uncertain futures in East Africa and South Asia, it examines how young people navigate social and economic constraints, make a living, and imagine and pursue their futures. Drawing on ethnographic studies from Kenya, Uganda, and South Sudan, the symposium investigates how ‘hustle’ illuminates young people’s everyday practices in relation to class, gender, education, family and kinship, life courses, and migration. It also considers the political and social implications of the concept, attending to both young people’s agency and the structural inequalities that shape their lives. As a further step, the symposium extends this inquiry to South Asia, exploring the potential and limits of applying the concept of ‘hustle’ beyond the East African context.
| 2026/12/05 | ||
| 09:45 - 10:00 | Opening and Introduction | Wakana Shiino(ILCAA, TUFS) |
| 10:00 - 10:30 | Cruising through Urban Society with Different Balances and Rhythms | Takuya Hagiwara(Toyo University) |
| 10:30 - 11:00 | Creating a Place in the City: Stages and Hustling Among Boda-Boda Riders in Uganda | Takuma Otani(JSPS RPD/ Ritsumeikan University) |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | An Ethnography of Two Female ‘Hustlers’ from a Rural Luo Village: The Implications of Gender and Higher Education | Wakana Shiino(ILCAA, TUFS) |
| 11:30 - 12:00 | We Look at Our Home: Self-help among Siblings in Uganda | Soichiro Shiraishi(Hirosaki University) |
| 12:00 - 13:00 | LUNCH BREAK | |
| 13:00 - 13:30 | ‘Hustles’ of the Refugee Youth: Navigating Precarity in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya | Isao Murahashi(University of Shizuoka) |
| 13:30 - 14:00 | Making Food Move: Hustling and Relational Provisioning among Displaced and Local Women in South Sudan | Eri Hashimoto(Rikkyo University) |
| 14:00 - 14:20 | COFFEE BREAK | |
| 14:20 - 14:50 | The Hustler Who Received God’s Word: Sociality and Passivity in Making a Life in Urban Uganda | Midori Daimon(Kyoto University) |
| 14:50 - 15:20 | Glorifying the Hustle Economy: The Role Religion Plays in the Urban Hustle Economy | Rebecca Babirye(Tokyo Christian University (Online)) |
| 15:20 - 15:35 | How "hustle" appears in East African media articles | Justus Thembo(TUFS, PhD student) |
| 15:35 - 16:00 | COFFEE BREAK | |
| 16:00 - 16:30 | Discussion: Comment 1 | Tatiana Thieme(University College London) |
| 16:30 - 16:50 | Discussion: Comment 2 | Meenakshi Thapan(ILCAA, TUFS/ Rishi Valley Education Centre) |
| 16:50 - 17:30 | General Discussion | |
| 2026/12/06 | ||
| 10:00 - 10:30 | “Certified Hustlers” Chronicles of Graduate Youths in Kenya and the Fallacies of a “Hustler Nation” | Kithinji Kinuya(Sophia University) |
| 10:30 - 11:00 | Playing the Boundary in Academia: Reflections on Class, Caste and Habitus in South Asia and Beyond | Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka(University of Bielefeld, Germany) |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | Young, Hustling and Hopeful: Ethnographic reflections on the spiral of recruitment examinations and (im)mobility among government job aspirants in Neoliberal India | Madhulika Sonkar(Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India) |
| 11:30 - 12:00 | Backup Plans: Young People Thinking Alternatively in Bodoland, India | Balawansuk Lynrah(Tokyo College, Tokyo Institute for Advanced Study (Online)) |
| 12:00 - 13:00 | LUNCH | |
| 13:00 - 13:30 | “Climate Hustlers” Gendered trajectories of survival and Agency among Climate Youth Migrants in Uganda’s Secondary Cities | Florence Kyoheirwe Muhanguzi(Makerere University, Uganda (Online)) |
| 13:30 - 14:00 | Piecing Together a Life: Women’s Work, Time and Livelihoods Beyond the Wage | Hem Borker(Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, India) |
| 14:00 - 14:30 | Surviving Campus Life Through Side Skills: A Tale of Young University-student Hustlers in Uganda | Constance Mudondo(Makerere University, Uganda (Online)) |
| 14:30 - 15:00 | COFFEE BREAK | |
| 15:00 - 15:30 | “Permanent Jugaad”: Collective Living as Informal Education in Delhi’s Hip Hop Worlds | Sarojini Sapru(UCL, London, UK) |
| 15:30 - 16:00 | Playing Snakes and Ladders: Trials and Tribulations of Youth Hustlers | Namita Ranganathan(Delhi University, India (Online)) |
| 16:00 - 16:15 | COFFEE BREAK | |
| 16:15 - 16:30 | Discussion: Comment 1 | Tatiana Thieme(UCL, London, UK) |
| 16:30 - 16:45 | Discussion: Comment 2 | Meenakshi Thapan(ILCAA, TUFS/ Rishi Valley Education Centre) |
| 16:45 - 17:00 | General Discussion | |