1,721,198 research outputs found
Spaces of imagination : associational life and the state in post-war, urban Liberia
Get PDFThis ethnography explores social imaginaries in post-war, urban Liberia – a physical and social context dominated by intricacies of past oligarchic rule, dictatorship, brutal civil war and post-war reconstruction. Against this challenging backdrop, this thesis asks: How do Liberians imagine the social to be and how do such imaginaries translate into social practice? Embedded in a political anthropology of the state and conceptually drawing on agency as defined by the interrelated temporal-structural dimensions of the past, present and future (Emirbayer and Mische 1998), this ethnography analyses three political associations and their interrelations with the state. Based on twelve months of empirical field research between 2009 and 2012 in urban Liberia, this thesis shows how ordinary people engage in meticulous social practices of “hustling”, “trying”, studying and maintaining social relations to economically or politically influential persons to forge a living in this insecure, unpredictable setting. Associations create social spaces in which imaginaries are uttered and shared, and inform individual and collective action.
The first association, the Unconstitutionally Disbanded Armed Forces of Liberia (UDAFOL), is a particular group with claims towards the central and sensitive post-war issue of national security. UDAFOL represents the grievances of soldiers that have been disbanded in the implementation of the Security Sector Reform. They consider their disbandment unconstitutional and a political decision. The disgruntled ex-servicemen regularly take to the streets, and address specific state images and practices in various forms of collective action.
The second association is the Concerned Mandingo Society of Liberia (COMASL), a group representing the temporally and situationally marginalized and instrumentalized ethnic group of Liberian Mandingo. As traders and late comers in Liberia, their belonging to the nation-state is contested. Though lawfully placed in the field of formal citizenship according to the constitution, in everyday life, their participation is challenged by discursively formed social boundaries. These boundaries are countered by COMASL on the basis of claims of belonging.
The third association is the West Point Women for Health and Development Organization (WPHD), a women’s association in a Monrovian slum. The association presses for political action in regards to the delivery of public goods and services such as security, justice, sanitation or health care. This association flexibly navigates the donor-sphere as a quite formalized NGO, directly addresses some of the neighborhoods’ problems, and situatively works in cooperation with state actors or mounts pressure on them.
These three associations highlight some particularities and complexities of post-war intricacies and how social spaces create an environment for collective action in response these problems. As the three case studies show, the state plays a central role and is ascribed major responsibility. The associations make claims towards political actors to initiate and catalyze change.
This ethnography shows that state and civil society are not monolithic black boxes but composed of individual actors with various experiences, knowledge and interests, and are very closely interwoven into a “state in society”(Migdal 2001), formed and shaped by multifaceted relationships of claims and state responses. Often overlooked, and highlighted in this thesis, is the existence of official norms that underlie the expectations towards the powerful political leaders that give the state a concrete imagery (Olivier de Sardan 2008). These norms do not emerge randomly, but from the political history of the Liberian state, and through experiences from other states.
From the social actor’s point of view, hence, the Liberian state is not a failed, weak or absent state. Quite to the contrary, it is considered strong, yet its actors are considered to lack political will to meet the needs and to work in the interest of the ordinary people and implement policies that make a change
Crystallizing contention : a cumulative dissertation on youth, politics, and urban violence in Conakry, Kampala, and beyond
Get PDFThis PhD thesis analyzes specific cases of how urban protest movements arise, how they grow in size and political significance, and how observation, description, and reality of protest movements are entangled. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Conakry (Guinea) and Kampala (Uganda), and also touching upon the England riots in 2011, the author employs comparative and relational methods to ultimately trace a new perspective on urban protests: the so-called crystallization approach. Based on the philosophy of Gilbert Simondon (1924-1989), it suggests seeing protest movements as crystallization processes, emerging from heterogeneous urban contexts and dynamically concretizing into ‘social movements’, ‘demonstrations’, ‘protests’ or ‘riots’ — terms that tend to absorb the diverse relations that gave rise to what they describe. The cumulative thesis comprises five distinct articles, preceded by an integrative synthesis in which the author reflects on his shortcomings during the research process and on why he failed to answer the research questions that he had started out with
Research Brokers We Use and Abuse while Researching Civil Wars and Their Aftermaths – Methodological Concerns
No full textIn this practitioners note I want, with a number of cases from my own fieldworks, highlight problems and possibilities of collecting first hand material about conflict with a specific focus on research brokers
African conflicts and Informal Power : Big Men and Networks
No full textThrough a variety of indepth case studies – from DRC to Somalia to Liberia amongst others – this book shows how important informal political and economic networks are in many of the continent’s conflict areas
African conflicts and Informal Power : Big Men and Networks
No full textThrough a variety of indepth case studies – from DRC to Somalia to Liberia amongst others – this book shows how important informal political and economic networks are in many of the continent’s conflict areas.Contents: -- Introduction: Bigmanity and network governance in African conflicts / Mats Utas -- Part 1: Country case studies -- 1. Informal political structures, resources and the Ugandan army; military entrepreneurialism in the Ugandan-Congolese borderland / Koen Vlassenroot and Sandrine Perot -- 2. Big Man Business in the Borderland of Sierra Leone / Maya Mynster Christensen -- 3. The politics of impersonation: Corps habillés, Nouchis, and subaltern Bigmanity in Côte d'Ivoire / Karel Arnaut -- 4. Demobilized or remobilized? Liberia's remaining rebel structures in post-war security settings / Mariam Persson -- 5. 'Castles in the sand': Informal networks and power brokers in the Northern Mali periphery / Morten Böås -- Part 2: Thematic case studies -- 6. Critical states and cocaine connections / Henrik Vigh -- 7. African Big Men and international criminal justice: the case of Sierra Leone / Gerhard Anders -- 8. Big Man bargaining in African conflicts / Ilmari Käihkö -- 9. Intermediaries of peace or agents of war: the role of ex-midlevel commanders in Big Man networks / Anders Themnér -- 10. The Big Men commanding conflict resources in Africa: the DRC case / Ruben de Koning</p
African conflicts and Informal Power : Big Men and Networks
No full textThrough a variety of indepth case studies – from DRC to Somalia to Liberia amongst others – this book shows how important informal political and economic networks are in many of the continent’s conflict areas
Informal political structures, resources and the Ugandan army, military entrepreneurialism in the Ugandan-Congolese borderland
No full textAfrican conflicts and Informal Power : Big Men and Networks
No full textThrough a variety of indepth case studies – from DRC to Somalia to Liberia amongst others – this book shows how important informal political and economic networks are in many of the continent’s conflict areas
African conflicts and Informal Power
Get PDFIn the aftermath of an armed conflict in Africa, the international community both produces and demands from local partners a variety of blueprints for reconstructing state and society. The aim is to re-formalize the state after what is viewed as a period of fragmentation. In reality, African economies and polities are very much informal in character, with informal actors, including so-called Big Men, often using their positions in the formal structure as a means to reach their own goals. Through a variety of in-depth case studies, including the DRC, Sierra Leone and Liberia, this comprehensive volume shows how important informal political and economic networks are in many of the continent's conflict areas. Moreover, it demonstrates that without a proper understanding of the impact of these networks, attempts to formalize African states, particularly those emerging from wars, will be in vain
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