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- Convenor:
-
Samantha Balaton-Chrimes
(Deakin University)
Send message to Convenor
- Format:
- Panel
- Streams:
- Politics and International Relations (x) Inequality (y)
- Location:
- Philosophikum, S54
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 31 May, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin
Short Abstract:
Nyamnjoh's conviviality emphasises incompleteness and openness over competition and conflict. This panel explores possibilities for conviviality in the face of stagnation of identities and relations manifest in hardening forms of identify difference and politics.
Long Abstract:
Francis Nyamnjoh's conceptualisation of Africans as frontier subjects, cognisant and embracing of subjective incompleteness, has been widely taken up across numerous disciplines. His suggestion that conviviality, as a mode of living constructively and pleasurably with and through difference, is a more natural state of being for African peoples than competitive and conflictual forms of relationality has obvious appeal. It calls for humility and a capacity to change - one's mind, one's identity, one's way of being with others.
Yet these notions are at odds with some hardening forms of identity politics and many of the channels through which those politics play out (e.g. social media). This panel is concerned with social and political circumstances in which identity differences and relations between identity groups are in a state of stagnation characterised by bitterness, refusal to constructively engage with Others, and hardened and foreclosed senses of identity difference. In these scenarios, what are the possibilities for futures of conviviality? And for an enactment of identity difference as joyfully incomplete? What kinds of materialities, discourses and social practices constitute practical barriers or conduits to conviviality, and/or to stagnation in identities and forms of relationality?
We welcome submissions from all disciplines and locations, and focused on any form of identity difference, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and religion. Preference will be given to papers which can advance thinking specifically about the interplay between identity, stagnation and conviviality through strong empirical research.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 31 May, 2023, -Paper short abstract:
A constellation of parochial nationalism, religion, race, cultural conservatism, and ethnicity continue to define human engagements. Phobic mobilisers take advantage of economic vulnerabilities, social dynamics and alternative forms of identities in the African context to sustain social phobia.
Paper long abstract:
Nyamnjoh focuses on the zero-sum game that Africa is reduced to whenever it engages with the West. As a proposition, he calls upon the human race to embrace the attitude of incompleteness as a precondition to conviviality. Despite this appeal, identity politics—a constellation of parochial nationalism, religion, race, cultural conservatism, and ethnicity—continue to define human engagements. Phobic mobilisers take advantage of economic vulnerabilities, social dynamics and alternative forms of identities in the African context, like homosexuality and single parenthood, to sustain social phobia. Focusing on intra-African engagements, I argue that these fears notwithstanding, rapid globalisation has resulted in unavoidable cosmopolitanism. Therefore, the ‘Other’ must continue to live within ‘us. In equal measure, he has to be engaged through a prism of dread and suspicion, continuously. Using Fanon’s ([1963]2008) concept of phobia and Ramadan and Shantz’ (2016) phobic construction models, I interrogate how different forms of phobia play out in the Kenyan digital space. I conceptualise Facebook and Twitter space of selected Kenyans as sites reflective of phobia and/or Afrophobia. I take the interactive comment sections as platforms for constructing and mediating metanarratives of phobia. Mainly, I analyse how Facebook and Twitter posts and their interactive comment sections speak to fears of identity vulnerabilities and how their call to consciousness materialises in grandstanding that fuel and sustain social phobia. I aver that this is the Africa of today and tomorrow.
Paper short abstract:
Based on empirical research in suburban Johannesburg, the paper explores how, within contexts of urban transformation, the existence of variegated alienation affects ways of living together, produces particular social forms, and reveals intricate layers of human interaction, belonging and identity.
Paper long abstract:
If, in policy terms, urban diversity is mainly approached as one of the gateways towards a more inclusive and integrated urbanity, in practice living with difference often unearths a range of challenges. From a scholarly perspective, realities of increasingly diverse cohabitation within densified urban environments have primarily been studied through the lens of ‘super-diversity’ or via renewed discussions about community and conviviality. However, within such contexts of urban transformation, whether self-initiated or government-led, less is known about forms of alienation and how this affects ways of living together in situations where people cannot not live together. This is of particular interest considering a growing push towards densified living. In suburban Johannesburg, this phenomenon unfolds within a specific contextual reality, combining sizeable demographic shifts since the 1990s with a persistent spatial legacy of apartheid planning at the level of the city. Given the changes in the built and social fabric, there is a need and urgency to understand the underlying rationale and norms which characterise such ‘pragmatic’ (and reluctant) forms of cohabitation. Focused on empirical research in Cyrildene and Orange Grove, two older and former ‘white’ middle-class neighbourhoods, this paper explores how mistrust, rumours, control and indifference all inform the nature of social cohesion between locals, established migrants and new arrivals. Despite being generally perceived as sundering relationships, these core concepts do also produce particular social (and spatial) forms, contribute to a more holistic understanding of urban and societal change while revealing intricate layers of human interactions, belonging and identity.
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the power of convivial practices in struggles for justice by lawyers and community activists, working under conditions of extreme political repression and violent conflict. It draws on extensive ethnographic and documentary research in South Sudan, and with refugees in Egypt.
Paper long abstract:
This paper explores the power of convivial practices in struggles for justice by lawyers and community activists, working under conditions of extreme political repression and violent conflict in Africa. It draws on extensive ethnographic, documentary and collaborative action research from 2014-2019 in South Sudan during a civil war, and from 2019-2023 among South Sudanese refugees in Egypt, under conditions of authoritarian rule. First, it explores the concept of conviviality as a political idea and a praxis of living with difference. It draws upon Francis Nyamnjoh’s (2017) expression of conviviality as inclusive, negotiated knowledge and action in urban African communities, and Paul Gilroy’s (2004) definition of ‘radical openness’ among people in multicultural urban areas in Europe, showing how conviviality challenges colonial logics of categorization, violence and racism. Second, it establishes South Sudan and Egypt as illustrative cases where notions of ethnic, racial or religious difference are highly politicized, legalized and enacted through violence; and where there are sharp constraints on legal and civic activism. Third, it explores how a handful of lawyers and activists find innovative ways to enact conviviality, creatively dealing with normative, legal and cultural difference, forging new solidarities, and making modest but tangible gains for justice. Finally, the paper reflects on the lessons of this convivial legal activism, contrasting it with institutionalised domestic and international approaches to justice and considering its future possibilities.
Paper short abstract:
Politicized territorial differences organize Senegalese university life but are not necessarily conflictual. Everyday social relations between students rather show a simultaneity of cooperation and conflict dynamics exceeding the politicization of territorial differences.
Paper long abstract:
The politicization of social differences shapes social relations and their conflict potential. But approaches to conflict resolution in divided societies predominantly focus on institutional “solutions” to such conflicts, while social relations and the variability of living politicized social differences in everyday interactions are neglected. However, a relational approach could allow for new insights regarding the meaning attributed to these differences in everyday encounters. The consideration of societies as deeply divided could therefore be replaced by an analytical approach that focuses on the relational expression of politicized social differences. In order to illustrate this conceptualization, I will draw empirically on the dynamics of cooperation and conflict surrounding the politicization of territorial differences in Senegalese universities. The territorial differences are marked by different politicization processes related to the organizational form of student associations, the influence of politicians on university life and the heritage of the separatist conflict in the Casamance region. But instead of being exclusively conflictual, the students show a strong solidarity and conviviality, as they actively cooperate in the creation of peaceful relationships across politicized differences. Based on these empirical insights, I argue that social relations provide the possibility of simultaneous dynamics of cooperation and conflict amidst the politicization of social differences.