Pub Date : 2022-04-03DOI: 10.1080/17531055.2022.2135246
A. Pankhurst, M. Araya, A. Tiumelissan, Kiros Birhanu
ABSTRACT Relocation from inner cities and rehousing in suburbs is becoming an increasingly prevalent issue in developing countries. However, there is limited evidence about the perspectives of adolescents and most studies are from western contexts. In addressing this gap this study tracked adolescents before and after they were relocated over an eight-year interval from the centre of Addis Ababa to the outskirts, mainly to government-sponsored condominium housing. The paper also compares the views of those who were relocated with those who stayed behind. The paper argues that condominium housing enabled low-to-middle-income households to become house owners, while the poorest could not afford the costs, and the richest preferred building their own houses. From the perspective of adolescents who were relocated the move led to better housing and improved sanitation. However, students faced difficulties in the first year commuting, and schools and health centres were considered better quality in the previous locations; markets and shops were initially less well developed in the condominium areas, and there were fewer recreation options, though pollution and safety were greater concerns in the old neighbourhoods. A significant majority of the adolescents (79%) felt that the changes were positive or mainly positive and soon adapted to the new social environment, though social ties were less strong than in their previous neighbourhoods. Those who moved had better internet access and there were gender differences in decision-making, leisure activities and spending, with girls having less freedom, somewhat compensated for by mobile phones and social media.
{"title":"‘A dream come true’? Adolescents’ perspectives on urban relocation and life in condominiums in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia","authors":"A. Pankhurst, M. Araya, A. Tiumelissan, Kiros Birhanu","doi":"10.1080/17531055.2022.2135246","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2022.2135246","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Relocation from inner cities and rehousing in suburbs is becoming an increasingly prevalent issue in developing countries. However, there is limited evidence about the perspectives of adolescents and most studies are from western contexts. In addressing this gap this study tracked adolescents before and after they were relocated over an eight-year interval from the centre of Addis Ababa to the outskirts, mainly to government-sponsored condominium housing. The paper also compares the views of those who were relocated with those who stayed behind. The paper argues that condominium housing enabled low-to-middle-income households to become house owners, while the poorest could not afford the costs, and the richest preferred building their own houses. From the perspective of adolescents who were relocated the move led to better housing and improved sanitation. However, students faced difficulties in the first year commuting, and schools and health centres were considered better quality in the previous locations; markets and shops were initially less well developed in the condominium areas, and there were fewer recreation options, though pollution and safety were greater concerns in the old neighbourhoods. A significant majority of the adolescents (79%) felt that the changes were positive or mainly positive and soon adapted to the new social environment, though social ties were less strong than in their previous neighbourhoods. Those who moved had better internet access and there were gender differences in decision-making, leisure activities and spending, with girls having less freedom, somewhat compensated for by mobile phones and social media.","PeriodicalId":46968,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eastern African Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"248 - 268"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60228088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17531055.2022.2069283
T. Makahamadze, Muluken Fikade
ABSTRACT The Amhara Region protests originated in Gondar in 2016 and swiftly spread. The study addresses the questions of how mass mobilization occurred in Amhara, the dynamics, diffusion, and contribution of the protests to national political reforms. Using the political process model, the study identified several local and external factors that provided opportunities for mobilization. Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with activists, government officials, residents of North Gondar, and scholars. The study finds the bitter relationship between Amhara elites and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the presence of opposition political party structures in the region, divisions in the ruling coalition, the diaspora community, and protests in Oromia to be the major factors that promoted the Amhara protests. Furthermore, the research found out that social capital and social media sites played influential roles in spreading anti-government protests across the region. The study contends that Amharas contributed toward national political reforms through spreading the protests to a wide geographical area and throughout the social and political environment, which compromised the government’s ability to repress decisively.
{"title":"Popular protests in the Amhara region and political reforms in Ethiopia, 2016–2018","authors":"T. Makahamadze, Muluken Fikade","doi":"10.1080/17531055.2022.2069283","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2022.2069283","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT\u0000 The Amhara Region protests originated in Gondar in 2016 and swiftly spread. The study addresses the questions of how mass mobilization occurred in Amhara, the dynamics, diffusion, and contribution of the protests to national political reforms. Using the political process model, the study identified several local and external factors that provided opportunities for mobilization. Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with activists, government officials, residents of North Gondar, and scholars. The study finds the bitter relationship between Amhara elites and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the presence of opposition political party structures in the region, divisions in the ruling coalition, the diaspora community, and protests in Oromia to be the major factors that promoted the Amhara protests. Furthermore, the research found out that social capital and social media sites played influential roles in spreading anti-government protests across the region. The study contends that Amharas contributed toward national political reforms through spreading the protests to a wide geographical area and throughout the social and political environment, which compromised the government’s ability to repress decisively.","PeriodicalId":46968,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eastern African Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"115 - 137"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49304025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17531055.2022.2068234
J. Gallagher, Daniel Mulugeta, Atnatewos Melake-Selam, J. Tomkinson
ABSTRACT In this article, we attempt to understand the persistence of the ‘great tradition’ in describing what the state means to Ethiopians. We do this by examining stories about history, told by and about Ethiopia’s architecture. Within these stories we find two ideas in apparent tension. One is an attachment to state history as exceptional, unified and ordained by God. This is told through architectural continuities reaching back to the pre-Christian Aksumite aesthetic that continuously underwrites the notion of a teleological progression of the state; and in current nostalgia for the assertive certainty of exceptionalism expressed in ancient architecture. The other is an acknowledgement of hybridity and disruption. This is expressed in innovative architectural aesthetics and techniques; and in the ways that state buildings have been made to carry the marks of dramatically different types of regime, particularly in the last 50 years. Drawing on the sem-ena-werq (ሰም እና ወርቅ or ‘wax and gold’) tradition we show how these stories-in-tension describe ambiguities within the great tradition, a story of confidence and exceptionalism, but also one that is disturbed and shaped by rupture and compromise.
摘要在这篇文章中，我们试图理解“伟大传统”在描述国家对埃塞俄比亚人意味着什么时的持久性。我们通过研究埃塞俄比亚建筑讲述的历史故事来做到这一点。在这些故事中，我们发现了两个明显紧张的想法。一种是对国家历史的依恋，认为它是特殊的、统一的、由上帝任命的。这是通过追溯到前基督教阿克苏米特美学的建筑连续性来讲述的，该美学持续支持国家的目的论发展概念；以及当前对古代建筑中表现出的例外主义的自信确定性的怀念。另一种是承认混杂性和破坏性。这体现在创新的建筑美学和技术上；以及国家建筑被打造成带有截然不同类型政权标志的方式，尤其是在过去50年中。在sem ena werq上绘图(ሰም እና ወርቅ 我们展示了这些紧张的故事是如何描述伟大传统中的模糊性的，这是一个充满自信和例外主义的故事，也是一个被破裂和妥协扰乱和塑造的故事。
{"title":"The histories buildings tell: aesthetic and popular readings of state meaning in Ethiopia","authors":"J. Gallagher, Daniel Mulugeta, Atnatewos Melake-Selam, J. Tomkinson","doi":"10.1080/17531055.2022.2068234","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2022.2068234","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this article, we attempt to understand the persistence of the ‘great tradition’ in describing what the state means to Ethiopians. We do this by examining stories about history, told by and about Ethiopia’s architecture. Within these stories we find two ideas in apparent tension. One is an attachment to state history as exceptional, unified and ordained by God. This is told through architectural continuities reaching back to the pre-Christian Aksumite aesthetic that continuously underwrites the notion of a teleological progression of the state; and in current nostalgia for the assertive certainty of exceptionalism expressed in ancient architecture. The other is an acknowledgement of hybridity and disruption. This is expressed in innovative architectural aesthetics and techniques; and in the ways that state buildings have been made to carry the marks of dramatically different types of regime, particularly in the last 50 years. Drawing on the sem-ena-werq (ሰም እና ወርቅ or ‘wax and gold’) tradition we show how these stories-in-tension describe ambiguities within the great tradition, a story of confidence and exceptionalism, but also one that is disturbed and shaped by rupture and compromise.","PeriodicalId":46968,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eastern African Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"2 - 24"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49461416","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17531055.2022.2074924
Brendon J. Cannon, M. Nakayama, Dominic R. Pkalya
ABSTRACT There are few questions of greater significance in African international relations than China's actions in and engagement with other states. Chinese infrastructure, businesses, and people have blanketed the continent and revolutionized lifestyles, transportation, and political economies. The advantages and detractions of such developments, in turn, have shaped local attitudes. African attitudes towards China, nevertheless, remain largely the subject of conjecture. This article explores the contemporary attitudes of Kenyan university students to China through surveys and contributes empirical data to the literature. Combined with a comparative textual analysis of the main Kenyan newspaper, the article sheds light on largely unknown—but generally assumed—attitudes of Kenyans towards China. The findings question a stereotype of China in Kenya and, by extension, the actions and reactions of other Africans and African states towards it. They also uncover nuanced attitudes that confound the mostly negative Western narrative about China in Africa. Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as debt, perceived racism and unfair labour practices, Kenyan university students' attitudes and discourse in the elite media have become less positive. There is, in addition, the broad perception that it is Kenya's leadership that benefits from the relationship and not so much its ordinary citizens.
{"title":"Understanding African views of China: analyses of student attitudes and elite media reportage in Kenya","authors":"Brendon J. Cannon, M. Nakayama, Dominic R. Pkalya","doi":"10.1080/17531055.2022.2074924","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2022.2074924","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT There are few questions of greater significance in African international relations than China's actions in and engagement with other states. Chinese infrastructure, businesses, and people have blanketed the continent and revolutionized lifestyles, transportation, and political economies. The advantages and detractions of such developments, in turn, have shaped local attitudes. African attitudes towards China, nevertheless, remain largely the subject of conjecture. This article explores the contemporary attitudes of Kenyan university students to China through surveys and contributes empirical data to the literature. Combined with a comparative textual analysis of the main Kenyan newspaper, the article sheds light on largely unknown—but generally assumed—attitudes of Kenyans towards China. The findings question a stereotype of China in Kenya and, by extension, the actions and reactions of other Africans and African states towards it. They also uncover nuanced attitudes that confound the mostly negative Western narrative about China in Africa. Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as debt, perceived racism and unfair labour practices, Kenyan university students' attitudes and discourse in the elite media have become less positive. There is, in addition, the broad perception that it is Kenya's leadership that benefits from the relationship and not so much its ordinary citizens.","PeriodicalId":46968,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eastern African Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"92 - 114"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41656539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17531055.2022.2075817
Aisha Ahmad, Tanya Bandula-Irwin, Mohamed Ibrahim
ABSTRACT Why has the Somali government failed to provide public order and essential services, while Al-Shabaab has had relatively more success in its governance objectives? To explain this variation in governance success, we offer a political economy explanation of wartime order-making based on the competing bargains that governing actors create to uphold their power. We identify two key political bargains in Somalia: (1) an elite deal, forged among members of the Somali Federal Government (SFG) and Federal Member States (FMS); and (2) a civilian deal, which Al-Shabaab directly establishes with the citizens under its control. Looking at these two deals, we examine how access to foreign support can affect a governing actor’s taxation impetus, and subsequently its commitment to governance. Our results reveal that not only can foreign support undermine the normal taxation-protection relationship between citizen and state, but it can also inadvertently provide jihadists with an opportunity to establish alternative forms of order.
{"title":"Who governs? State versus jihadist political order in Somalia","authors":"Aisha Ahmad, Tanya Bandula-Irwin, Mohamed Ibrahim","doi":"10.1080/17531055.2022.2075817","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2022.2075817","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Why has the Somali government failed to provide public order and essential services, while Al-Shabaab has had relatively more success in its governance objectives? To explain this variation in governance success, we offer a political economy explanation of wartime order-making based on the competing bargains that governing actors create to uphold their power. We identify two key political bargains in Somalia: (1) an elite deal, forged among members of the Somali Federal Government (SFG) and Federal Member States (FMS); and (2) a civilian deal, which Al-Shabaab directly establishes with the citizens under its control. Looking at these two deals, we examine how access to foreign support can affect a governing actor’s taxation impetus, and subsequently its commitment to governance. Our results reveal that not only can foreign support undermine the normal taxation-protection relationship between citizen and state, but it can also inadvertently provide jihadists with an opportunity to establish alternative forms of order.","PeriodicalId":46968,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eastern African Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"68 - 91"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48917204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17531055.2022.2070301
D. Ngira
ABSTRACT Plural-legal societies are often characterized by a clash between various conflicting socio-legal realities. This paper starts by exploring the various contestations in human rights and the clash between rights and moral values. Using fieldwork from the Kipsigis community in Kenya, this paper explores the clash between community customary value systems and the language of rights as contained in child rights instruments. The paper demonstrates the prevalence of care ethics as a customary value system and examines how care ethics is upheld or (violated) in children’s matters among grassroots communities such as the Kipsigis. This research revealed that contrary to universalized notions of child well-being which are anchored on rights realization, children among the Kipsigis attain their well-being through non-rights based approaches that encompass the ethics of care and the ‘do no harm principle’ as well as that of customary entitlements (living rights) whose foundation and enforcement systems are different from universal notions of rights.
{"title":"Plural-legalities and the clash between customary law and ‘child rights talk’ among rural communities in Kenya","authors":"D. Ngira","doi":"10.1080/17531055.2022.2070301","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2022.2070301","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Plural-legal societies are often characterized by a clash between various conflicting socio-legal realities. This paper starts by exploring the various contestations in human rights and the clash between rights and moral values. Using fieldwork from the Kipsigis community in Kenya, this paper explores the clash between community customary value systems and the language of rights as contained in child rights instruments. The paper demonstrates the prevalence of care ethics as a customary value system and examines how care ethics is upheld or (violated) in children’s matters among grassroots communities such as the Kipsigis. This research revealed that contrary to universalized notions of child well-being which are anchored on rights realization, children among the Kipsigis attain their well-being through non-rights based approaches that encompass the ethics of care and the ‘do no harm principle’ as well as that of customary entitlements (living rights) whose foundation and enforcement systems are different from universal notions of rights.","PeriodicalId":46968,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eastern African Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"25 - 46"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45063438","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17531055.2022.2070303
J. Drew
ABSTRACT Kenya's drylands have experienced a recent rise in large-scale land acquisitions, including energy extraction and infrastructure projects. The “scramble” for land and resources involves a range of actors, including pastoralists, many of whom have attempted to secure rights over land in anticipation of new opportunities associated with future investments. Such “economies of anticipation” among communities are transforming investor and state visions. This article adds to discussions of economies of anticipation; it argues that different types of middlemen are central to rural communities' struggles to gain a stake in energy and infrastructure investments, and the precarity they face due to land tenure change. The article argues for the importance of incorporating a temporal dimension into discussions of economies of anticipation and community-middlemen interactions. It charts how one pastoralist community's past experiences of negotiating their inclusion in the Lake Turkana Wind Power investment and other land deals shaped subsequent desires to demarcate land in anticipation of future investments. Alleged nepotism and inequitable inclusion of communities by investment gatekeepers sparked community claims of rightful inclusion based around contested meanings of land and an everyday sense of place. Social stratifications and narratives of belonging that emerged from protests for inclusion determined citizens' subsequent attempts to gain a stake in future investment projects.
{"title":"Protest, middlemen and everyday meanings of place: reconceptualising the scramble for East Africa’s drylands","authors":"J. Drew","doi":"10.1080/17531055.2022.2070303","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2022.2070303","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Kenya's drylands have experienced a recent rise in large-scale land acquisitions, including energy extraction and infrastructure projects. The “scramble” for land and resources involves a range of actors, including pastoralists, many of whom have attempted to secure rights over land in anticipation of new opportunities associated with future investments. Such “economies of anticipation” among communities are transforming investor and state visions. This article adds to discussions of economies of anticipation; it argues that different types of middlemen are central to rural communities' struggles to gain a stake in energy and infrastructure investments, and the precarity they face due to land tenure change. The article argues for the importance of incorporating a temporal dimension into discussions of economies of anticipation and community-middlemen interactions. It charts how one pastoralist community's past experiences of negotiating their inclusion in the Lake Turkana Wind Power investment and other land deals shaped subsequent desires to demarcate land in anticipation of future investments. Alleged nepotism and inequitable inclusion of communities by investment gatekeepers sparked community claims of rightful inclusion based around contested meanings of land and an everyday sense of place. Social stratifications and narratives of belonging that emerged from protests for inclusion determined citizens' subsequent attempts to gain a stake in future investment projects.","PeriodicalId":46968,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eastern African Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"160 - 179"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46193109","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17531055.2022.2075818
Alex Veit, Sarah Biecker
ABSTRACT Age-of-consent legislation serves to protect children from sexual abuse. In Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, however, the reform of laws against sexual violence has led to a criminalisation of non-violent and consensual sexual interactions with and between underage teenagers. These reforms have been inspired by evolving international norms, but discourses in both countries emphasised the regulation of female and youth sexuality over norms of self-determination. This contribution unpacks the interlocking actions of activists, parliaments, police, judges and parents, which turned protective anti-sexual violence legislation into an instrument of patriarchal control. Methodologically, the comparative analysis charts discourses and practices in both countries based on ethnographic, qualitative and statistical data. We trace legislative debates, demonstrate the significance of policing and prosecution of consensual youth sexuality, and discuss incentives for police and justice institutions to engage in this field. We contrast young people’s diverse views on underage sexuality with parental attempts to uphold patriarchal norms with the help of the police. The conclusion discusses the social cost of criminalising consensual teenage sexuality and asks whether these violent interventions indicate a crisis of patriarchal authority.
{"title":"Love or crime? Law-making and the policing of teenage sexuality in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo","authors":"Alex Veit, Sarah Biecker","doi":"10.1080/17531055.2022.2075818","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2022.2075818","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Age-of-consent legislation serves to protect children from sexual abuse. In Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, however, the reform of laws against sexual violence has led to a criminalisation of non-violent and consensual sexual interactions with and between underage teenagers. These reforms have been inspired by evolving international norms, but discourses in both countries emphasised the regulation of female and youth sexuality over norms of self-determination. This contribution unpacks the interlocking actions of activists, parliaments, police, judges and parents, which turned protective anti-sexual violence legislation into an instrument of patriarchal control. Methodologically, the comparative analysis charts discourses and practices in both countries based on ethnographic, qualitative and statistical data. We trace legislative debates, demonstrate the significance of policing and prosecution of consensual youth sexuality, and discuss incentives for police and justice institutions to engage in this field. We contrast young people’s diverse views on underage sexuality with parental attempts to uphold patriarchal norms with the help of the police. The conclusion discusses the social cost of criminalising consensual teenage sexuality and asks whether these violent interventions indicate a crisis of patriarchal authority.","PeriodicalId":46968,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eastern African Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"138 - 159"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46532766","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-02DOI: 10.1080/17531055.2021.1989138
P. Guma, Mwangi Mwaura
ABSTRACT Since its inception in the 1990s, mobile telephony in Africa has evolved, reflecting varied advances in technology. These advances have become particularly reminiscent of the role of mobile technologies in everyday facets of life. In this paper, we examine infrastructural configurations of mobile telephony in an urban African context. We demonstrate how urban Africa is being instrumented through the incoming of mobile telephony, but also how the convergence of the digital and the physical is materializing through the everyday use and appropriation of mobile phone-based technologies. We make this contribution through illustrations and vignettes – including Mkokoteni handcart operations, electricity “token” meter connections, and mobile phone kiosk processes – from Buru Buru, an estate in Nairobi. Thus, we place our analysis within recent area studies scholarship, drawing perspectives from science, technology and society studies, infrastructure studies and urban studies. We contend that the variegated infrastructural configurations of mobile telephony challenge ingrained accounts of technological determinism, not least within conventional area studies.
{"title":"Infrastructural configurations of mobile telephony in urban Africa: vignettes from Buru Buru, Nairobi","authors":"P. Guma, Mwangi Mwaura","doi":"10.1080/17531055.2021.1989138","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2021.1989138","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Since its inception in the 1990s, mobile telephony in Africa has evolved, reflecting varied advances in technology. These advances have become particularly reminiscent of the role of mobile technologies in everyday facets of life. In this paper, we examine infrastructural configurations of mobile telephony in an urban African context. We demonstrate how urban Africa is being instrumented through the incoming of mobile telephony, but also how the convergence of the digital and the physical is materializing through the everyday use and appropriation of mobile phone-based technologies. We make this contribution through illustrations and vignettes – including Mkokoteni handcart operations, electricity “token” meter connections, and mobile phone kiosk processes – from Buru Buru, an estate in Nairobi. Thus, we place our analysis within recent area studies scholarship, drawing perspectives from science, technology and society studies, infrastructure studies and urban studies. We contend that the variegated infrastructural configurations of mobile telephony challenge ingrained accounts of technological determinism, not least within conventional area studies.","PeriodicalId":46968,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eastern African Studies","volume":"15 1","pages":"527 - 545"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46331779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-02DOI: 10.1080/17531055.2021.1987700
K. Mkutu, M. Müller-Koné, Evelyne Atieno Owino
ABSTRACT This work analyses the politics of anticipation and ensuing fears, tensions and conflicts in relation to Kenya’s Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor which is to pass through several previously marginalized counties in the north of the country. Isiolo county, in the centre of Kenya is home to several different ethnic groups of whom some are perceived to be better informed about LAPSSET than others, or have certain advantages in terms of claims to indigeneity, ethno-political dominance, land tenure security or access to markets, which help them to position themselves accordingly. This anticipatory positioning – actions people take in anticipation of the future – is raising fears and heightening the claiming of land and ethnic boundary-making, leading to heightened tensions and exacerbating existing conflicts of which three specific cases are considered. We show how ethno-political divides on a national and regional level become effective at the local and county level, but at the same time, how the positioning of actors in anticipation of future investments impacts on ethnic boundary-making, as division lines are re-enacted and redrawn.
{"title":"Future visions, present conflicts: the ethnicized politics of anticipation surrounding an infrastructure corridor in northern Kenya","authors":"K. Mkutu, M. Müller-Koné, Evelyne Atieno Owino","doi":"10.1080/17531055.2021.1987700","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2021.1987700","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This work analyses the politics of anticipation and ensuing fears, tensions and conflicts in relation to Kenya’s Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor which is to pass through several previously marginalized counties in the north of the country. Isiolo county, in the centre of Kenya is home to several different ethnic groups of whom some are perceived to be better informed about LAPSSET than others, or have certain advantages in terms of claims to indigeneity, ethno-political dominance, land tenure security or access to markets, which help them to position themselves accordingly. This anticipatory positioning – actions people take in anticipation of the future – is raising fears and heightening the claiming of land and ethnic boundary-making, leading to heightened tensions and exacerbating existing conflicts of which three specific cases are considered. We show how ethno-political divides on a national and regional level become effective at the local and county level, but at the same time, how the positioning of actors in anticipation of future investments impacts on ethnic boundary-making, as division lines are re-enacted and redrawn.","PeriodicalId":46968,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eastern African Studies","volume":"15 1","pages":"707 - 727"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41629792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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