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- Convenors:
-
Daniel Wroe
Ben Jones (University of East Anglia)
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- Stream:
- Social Anthropology
- Location:
- Appleton Tower, Lecture Theatre 1
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 12 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This panel looks at disruption to local institutions and everday political culture in provincial places, not only rural villages, but also trading centres and towns.
Long Abstract:
How are local institutions and everyday political culture being 'disrupted' in rural, provincial places? Africa's rapidly expanding cities have been the setting of much of the recent research on social and political 'disruption' on the continent, scholars examining how new social forms emerge from everyday encounters. We want to look at disruptions occurring in more provincial places, not just rural villages, but also the thousands of trading centres and towns that cover Africa. To what extent are the theoretical frameworks developed in the context of the urban centre helpful for understanding changes in small towns or district capitals? How are youth and the emerging middle class shaping institutions in provincial places? How might we link changes in larger and smaller urban centres? What are the limits of urban theories derived only from Africa's largest cities and how do they shape the way we consider social and political transformations in Africa?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 12 June, 2019, -Paper short abstract:
Using an ethnographic case study from Malawi this paper argues that collapsing small towns and trading centres as either rural or urban obscures important 'connections and disruptions' taking place in Africa today.
Paper long abstract:
Scholarship on migration in Malawi has concentrated on three main dynamics - internal movement between rural areas and major urban centres, internal movement between rural areas and transnational migration. This reflects the focus of research on the rest of Africa. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in Malawi, this paper explores the case of a family's move from a rural village to a small trading centre. Examining the reasons behind the move in detail it suggests that trading centres and small towns provide distinct social and economic possibilities for the people that live in them. The paper proposes there is need for more research on trading centres and small towns, and on movement or migration to them. Collapsing small towns and trading centres as either rural or urban obscures important 'connections and disruptions' taking place in Africa today.
Paper short abstract:
In the Teso region of eastern Uganda there is a generation of young men and women who are the first in their family to go to school. This paper explores the political entailments of education through looking at the way these young men and women do politics through local institutions.
Paper long abstract:
In the Teso region of eastern Uganda there is a generation of young men and women in their twenties and thirties who are the first in their family to go to school. Many are 'staying home' and making some sort of life for themselves in a provincial place. This paper explores the political changes that this "educated" generation brings to local institutions - school committees, church groups, village courts, burial societies. It is based on long term ethnographic work in a rural sub-parish that is slowly being incorporated into the trading centre of a newly created district capital. Through looking at the changing dynamics within and between families within this sub-parish, the paper examines the political entailments of education. Available research on education in the developing world focuses on its economic impact, or on the spread of modern attitudes, particularly among male urban youth. Less is understood about everyday political culture in rural, provincial places, or about the disruptions taking place with the arrival of educated young men and, more especially, women, in the countryside.
Paper short abstract:
The paper explores how the experience of the Ebola emergency response in a peripheral Sierra Leonean town, reshaped ideas of citizenship and forged new expectations, disrupting traditional campaign tactics in the 2018 Presidential Elections.
Paper long abstract:
In July 2015, Kambia, a small town in Sierra Leone's Northern Province, became the centre of one of the last efforts to end the outbreak of Ebola that had devastated the country: Operation Northern Push. The Operation, led by the military, included curfews and punishment for failure to comply to Ebola regulations such as safe burials. in Kambia, the Operation was met with ambivalence. On the one hand widespread mistrust was confirmed by the violence of the response. On the other, it was a unique encounter with the state. This opened a conversation about what it meant to be a citizen from a previously neglected border town, also giving life to ideas of what it could mean in the future. Kambians in some ways became citizens through crisis. Based on extensive field research, the paper explores how experiences and memories of crisis forged new expectations. Focusing on the 2018 election campaign, the paper shows how Ebola disrupted the political strategies normally adopted "up country". Tracing Kambians' political imagination and hopes in this election, highlights the importance of an ethnographic perspective from peripheral towns to challenge existing accounts of electoral politics, legitimacy and the social contract.