Paper Short Abstract:

This paper explores the shifting relationship between state and citizens in the wake of neoliberalization in post-socialist Tanzania and shows how citizens, despite their ambivalence towards it, incorporate the state into their lives.

Paper Abstract:

As many other formerly socialist countries, the years after the demise of Tanzania’s socialist era called Ujamaa were characterized by processes of privatization, decentralization of the government as well as drastic cutbacks on state expenditure, especially in the social sector. The state’s withdrawal and the division between state and civil society are commonly portrayed as consequences of such transitions of economic liberalization. In recent years, however, scholars have put into question the state’s retreat (Ferguson and Gupta 2002) as well as the dichotomy between state and society (Vetters 2018) and show instead that especially citizens belonging to marginal communities constantly interact with the state instead of keeping it away (Street 2012; Dubois 2017; Koch 2019).

Based on 12 months of ethnographic research in Northern Tanzania, this paper explores the shifting relationship between state and citizens in post-socialist Tanzania. Drawing on daily encounters at a social welfare office, I show how welfare officers and their clients renegotiate responsibilities of care in the wake of neoliberalization and, by doing so, establish, blur, and cross boundaries between public and private realms. Posing their matters in front of local state agents, citizens not only claim the state to care for them but incorporate it into their lives. These interactions are characterized both by closeness and immediacy as well as ambivalence, control, and mistrust. Such ‘hope for and against the state’ (Jansen 2014) shows the dynamic relationship between state and citizens as well as citizens’ desire for the state, especially during uncertain times.