Paper short abstract:

My presentation illustrates how people construct their life-world through difficulties in their communities, which are heterogenic and diverse in language and economic activity. I will discuss the limitations and possibilities of a community in transition.

Paper long abstract:

Fish and water, the natural resources of Lake Albert in Uganda, attract people from a wide range of areas, for example, fishing people from the West Nile and the DRC, pastoralist from Kasese, refugees from Acholiland and Rwanda. My focus is on a multi-ethnic village located on the east side of the lake.

I will point out that the drastic development of globalization has not changed the mode of living in this community. People's resources are more likely to affect their living situation, which, in turn, is affected by national policy and economics. We could describe the situation as follows: the Alur, people who are peripheral in their socio-economic status become even more peripheral under a neoliberal political regime.

On the other hand, all these people persist in their everyday practices in the hope that they can improve their own lives. All of them are searching for their interests by themselves. It is possible to say the behaviour of searching for their own interests is a possibility to create solidarity of peoples in the community. Several community meetings have been organised by the Local Council and Beach Management Unit, and I would like to suggest such a possible political space, as multi-ethnic people engage with others to reach a mutual consensus. There is the possibility of the setting up of an interface between different ethnic groups to create of collective belonging consciousness.