"This book is a remarkable and ethnographically very rich contribution to the field of youth studies. Bringing together anthropological debates on youth, education, and temporality in diverse regional settings, the book has much to add to our understanding of the complex routes and prospects that shape young people's livelihoods in situations of uncertainty. An extremely timely book!" (Karen Valentin, Associate Professor, Department of Educational Anthropology, Aarhus University, Denmark) "This rich volume argues for a shift away from policy studies of classrooms and schools to a broader perspective in which student horizons of aspiration, expectation, and hope are placed at the center of the analysis. Far from being simple paths to social mobility, schools are shown to primarily be sites where youth learn to engage, debate, contest, and evaluate the practices of aspiration through which education refracts larger social constraints on future-building. This book is indispensable for all scholars of youth, education, and globalization." (Arjun Appadurai, Paulette Goddard Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University, USA).