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- Convenor:
-
William Monteith
(Queen Mary University of London)
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- Format:
- Panels
- Location:
- NB005
- Start time:
- 29 June, 2017 at
Time zone: Europe/Zurich
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
The expansion of African cities is generating new patterns of collaboration and competition, sociality and distance. This panel explores the production of 'strangeness' in African cities, and the ways in which markers of difference are actively negotiated by urban inhabitants.
Long Abstract:
All cities are to a certain extent an assemblage of diasporas. As African societies continue to urbanise, diverse populations encounter each other within highly restricted spatial parameters, producing new patterns of collaboration and competition, sociality and distance. However, different groups experience these patterns in different ways. Rather than predetermined, the category of the stranger in the African city is actively negotiated by urban African inhabitants. It may be invoked to rationalise the alienation of others, for example from support networks and supply chains, but also to facilitate self-alienation, for example from regimes of government taxation and social obligation.
This panel explores the production of 'strangeness' and difference in urban African environments. Taking inspiration from the classic work of Simmel (1908), as well as the recent contributions of Whitehouse (2012) and Hammar (2014), it seeks to unpack taken-for-granted markers of urban difference and to situate them within the emerging social, cultural and political economies of African cities.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
This paper addresses how in the city of Cotonou strangeness was both produced and refuted during the implementation of a national population census in 2013. It raises questions such as who is counted and who is accountable for construction of categories of strangers in the city.
Paper long abstract:
This paper will address the production of strangeness during a national population census and its implementation in Cotonou. The city of Cotonou is situated on the Lagos-Abidjan corridor and as such is heavily shaped by mobility along the Guinea Gulf. It is the largest and most cosmopolitan city in Benin and is host to a range of West African communities, to whom the stable nation has provided both refuge and trading opportunities. In a context where the informal is the norm, the collection of data on strangers raises both methodological, and theoretical questions. This paper draws on both the quantitative data generated by the operation, and a qualitative reading of how the census was at times contested and negotiated by strangers. It analyses why certain groups of strangers refused to partake, distancing themselves from the census and opposing the state initiative. Finally it reflects upon the data of strangers included in census, and who appear to be better equipped for an urban future in terms of housing, education and employment. Indeed, it would appear in the case of Cotonou that the strangers have an upper hand whilst natives face severe livelihood challenges.
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the different ways migrants from West Africa and the Horn of Africa seek to establish their position in the Zambian capital, Lusaka. It argues that their attempts keep links with their homeland reflect their concerns about securing their livelihoods as much as any affective bond.
Paper long abstract:
This paper examines the different approaches adopted by people from West Africa and the Horn of Africa as they establish themselves in the Zambian capital, Lusaka. It will highlight the way their various efforts to belong are received by the Zambian population, whose responses reflect the different historical, social and economic contexts of the first arrival of these 'stranger' populations and their subsequent settlement. It will argue that people's attempts to sustain and reproduce links with their homeland, and the people of the homeland, can be seen as reflecting concerns with securing their livelihoods as much as any affective bond. It will also show how the particular history and socio-economic landscape of the city affects the diasporic relationships that these African migrant are inclined to form. The paper concludes by suggesting that the findings from this and similar African cases provide valuable counterpoints to the common assumptions made about diasporas of African origin outside the continent.
Paper short abstract:
This paper draws on research with refugee communities in Addis Ababa, examining the contribution of these ‘strangers in the city’ to the host economy. The paper argues that impact of such ‘refugee economies’ and contribution to market development within the host community is underestimated.
Paper long abstract:
Forced displacement affected an estimated 65.3 million people in 2015, including 21.3 million refugees, and 40.8 million internally displaced people. Despite UNHCR policy, host governments often do not provide refugees with the right to work or a resident's permit, limiting their ability to work or achieve stability in their new environment. Thus many refugees remain in 'grey space' (Yiftachel, 2009), positioned between legality and illegality and marginalised in urban policy.
This paper draws on research with refugee communities in Addis Ababa, for the IIED programme on Local Markets in the Context of Urban Humanitarian Response. Ethiopia has one of the largest refugee populations in sub-Saharan Africa, with about 650,000 people in camps and the rest in urban areas, mainly in Addis Ababa. Refugees in Ethiopia are restricted in working. Most studies on refugee livelihoods look at the role of work in household survival and wellbeing, but this paper adopts a novel approach to examine the contribution of these 'strangers in the city' to the host economy.
Urban refugees engage in a wide variety of work. Men often work as day labourers in construction, women in domestic work, while those from similar places cluster in similar work. Refugees bring skills and labour to host communities, but there relatively is little research on the operation of refugee economies and their relationship with the wider urban economy. The paper argues that the wider impact of such refugee economies' and their contribution to market development within the host community is significantly underestimated. (this paper was developed in collaboration with Alison Brown and Peter Mackie)
Paper short abstract:
This paper investigates the role of social, cultural and economic factors in enabling and constraining the participation of refugee and IDP populations in urban markets in Kampala, Uganda.
Paper long abstract:
This paper investigates the role of social, cultural and economic factors in enabling and constraining the participation of refugee and IDP populations in urban markets in Kampala, Uganda. It provides an in-depth analysis of the paper jewellery, kitenge fabric and skin cosmetic markets; markets with high proportions of Acholi, Congolese and Somali participants respectively.
A particular innovation of the paper is that it explores the interactions that take place between refugee, IDP and host populations within these markets. This approach broadens the focus from refugee livelihoods to 'refugee economies' (Betts et al. 2014), allowing for an appreciation of the complex ways in which displaced populations are positioned within urban systems.