Introduction

This chapter provides a general introduction to the edited volume of Citizenship Practices in East Africa: Perspectives from Philosophical Pragmatism. It contextualizes the contribution of the book within three ongoing discussions: first, on the role of a normative starting point in development research; second, on the principle of philosophical pragmatism of starting theorizing from human practices; and third, on the efforts to conceptualize citizenship on the basis of everyday experiences. The chapter sets the main objectives of the book as to articulate a concept of citizenship based on philosophical pragmatism, to explore a variety of practices in which citizenship habits are acquired a…

Gendered citizenship in rural Uganda : Localized, exclusive and active

This chapter scrutinizes ways in which practices of citizenship are embedded and interwoven in local contexts and existing power relations. It draws from a participatory qualitative study conducted in two districts, Kiboga and Namutumba, in Uganda. The chapter discusses experiences and perceptions of gendered citizenship articulated by rural inhabitants, both women and men, who had previously participated in some activities of a Uganda gender-advocacy NGO, Action for Development (ACFODE). Our analysis has showed that Ugandan women, especially in rural communities, are struggling with discrepancies between entitlements granted in government legislation and social controls exercised in everyd…

Southern civil society organizations as practical hybrids : Dealing with legitimacy in a Ugandan gender advocacy organization

This chapter explores the ways in which Southern civil society organizations (CSOs) navigate between diverse audiences and logics in relation to which their legitimacy is negotiated. Drawing on the notions of practical hybrids and organizational legitimacy in hybrid organizations, the chapter explores the legitimacy audiences and logics relevant to a Ugandan gender advocacy organization, Action for Development (ACFODE). The chapter identifies five influential legitimacy audiences – central government, local government, project participants in the communities, international development partners, and other Ugandan gender CSOs. Further, it establishes four significant logics in alignment to wh…

The Rocky Road of Growing into Contemporary Citizenship: Dewey, Gramsci, and the Method of Democracy

Characterized by globalization, increasing pluralism, and new complexities of citizenship, the contemporary world poses challenges to the ways in which we conceptualize of the processes of searching for shared solutions to ever-complicated social problems. While the political rhetoric emphasizes the value of citizens’ participation, engagement, and “voices,” there are increasing feelings of frustration, incapacity, and disinterest on behalf of the citizens regarding the supposed eff ects of their political engagement. In order to conceptually grasp the problem of searching for shared solutions and the related challenges to education, we draw on John Dewey’s idea of the method of democracy a…

Ethical, Managerial and Methodological Perspectives in Knowledge Creation in Two Finnish Civil Society Organisations

Conceptual foundations : Reimagining roles, relations, and processes

This chapter establishes a conceptual foundation for investigating the reimagining of roles, relations, and processes in collaborations among civil society organizations in development. The chapter starts by introducing the notion of imagination. It then proceeds to review the existing research literature on challenges related to power and privilege in civil society organization collaborations. Further, it explores new ideas and practices that have been identified as practical translations of the potential new foundations for collaboration. The discussion presented in this chapter forms not only an overall conceptual context for the chapters that follow, all of which speak from, but also to…

Impediments to localization agenda : humanitarian space in the Rohingya response in Bangladesh

The article spotlights the impediments of the localization agenda in the Rohingya response in Bangladesh through the notion of humanitarian space. The Rohingyas rely entirely on material aid and humanitarian services in the camps, mainly stemming from international actors committed to the localization agenda, which, however, has not been effectively implemented. Drawing on the definition of humanitarian space as an arena, we investigate the main negotiations within humanitarian space in the Rohingya response and how they impede the realization of the localization agenda. We conducted secondary data analysis on reports published by organizations involved and validated the findings with ten t…

Equity in REDD+: Varying logics in Tanzania

Equity is frequently cited as one of the key design aspects of environmental governance regimes. In the context of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), a forest-based climate change mitigation instrument, the manner in which ‘equity’ is understood will be of critical importance for the impacts and acceptance of REDD+ policies and initiatives. Whereas the concept has been extensively studied in the academic literature, references to equity in REDD+ policy debates and documents are often vague, leaving room for various interpretations and modes of implementation. In our case study of the Tanzanian national REDD+ policy domain, we provide a conceptual framework …

Kehitysjärjestöt hybridiorganisaatioina : toiminnan logiikat suomalaisessa ja liberialaisessa kansalaisjärjestössä

Equity in REDD+: Varying logics in Tanzania

Equity is frequently cited as one of the key design aspects of environmental governance regimes. In the context of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), a forest-based climate change mitigation instrument, the manner in which ‘equity’ is understood will be of critical importance for the impacts and acceptance of REDD + policies and initiatives. Whereas the concept has been extensively studied in the academic literature, references to equity in REDD + policy debates and documents are often vague, leaving room for various interpretations and modes of implementation. In our case study of the Tanzanian national REDD + policy domain, we provide a conceptual framewo…

Localising SDGs in Rural Uganda: Learning Active Citizenship Through the Saemaul Undong Model

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are premised on the principles of ‘leaving no one behind’ and transformative development. Achieving the goals requires active citizens that are engaged in community development and claiming their rights. The chapter explores the ways in which a local NGO uses Saemaul Undong (SMU), a Korean community development model, to localise holistic achievement of a number of SDGs. Drawing on theories of the travel of global ideas in institutional sociology and based on participatory research including in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and participation in community activities, the chapter analyses how SMU’s three pillars of self-help, diligence and …

Contextualizing citizenship in Uganda

According to the pragmatist framework of this book, practices in which citizenship is constructed are embedded in certain environments and, accordingly, current citizenship habits have been formulated in the course of a continuity of experiences and in interaction with existing circumstances (Holma & Kontinen, this volume). In this chapter, we provide a short overview of Uganda in so far as it is relevant for understanding the experiences and practices of citizenship: both vocal political engagement and the everyday processes of addressing matters of local importance. In contemporary Uganda, citizenship is manifest, on the one hand, in the upfront contestation and mobilization of visible op…

Rethinking Civil Society in Development: Scales and Situated Hegemonies

Ethnic residential segregation is often explained with the claim that ‘immigrants don’t want to integrate—they prefer to stick together with co-ethnics’. By contrast, mixed neighbourhoods are seen as crucial for achieving social cohesion. In line with spatial assimilation theory there is a normative assumption that people interact with those living nearby. From interviews on neighbourhood qualities and locations valued by Oslo residents of Turkish, Somali and Polish backgrounds, we raise questions about the validity of two assumptions: that most immigrants want to live in the same neighbourhoods as co-ethnics; and that they want to live close to co-ethnics because they do not want to integr…

“A good believer is a good citizen” : Connecting Islamic morals with civic virtues in rural Tanzania

Religious communities as arenas for public life are prevalent examples of social embeddedness that need not to be excluded from the design of citizenship initiatives. Across sub-Saharan Africa, religious practices provide some of the most important spaces of everyday identity, belonging and prevailing ways in which citizens participate in community life. While there is expansion in research on Islamic radicalization in East Africa, this chapter approaches religion and faith from the pragmatist point of view focusing on everyday Islam in non-radicalized rural contexts. Based on interviews with rural community members in Kondoa district, Tanzania, the chapter analyses how community members ar…

Liminaalitilan käsite työn muutosten jäsentäjänä

Liminaalitila on antropologiassa määritelty välitilaksi, kynnyksellä olemiseksi. Liminaalisuus on nykypäivän työelämälle ominainen piirre, joka voi näyttäytyä kaaoksena, mutta myös uutta luovana muutosvaiheena.

Habits of contributing citizenship : Self-help groups in rural Tanzania

The chapter examines self-help groups in rural Tanzania as practices in which citizenship habits are formed. Self-help groups are referred as locally organized groups established to address the needs and challenges of the members. From the point of view of pragmatism, self-help groups provide concrete examples of a specific form of associated life and of a general human activeness in addressing shared problems. Based on interviews and focus-group discussions conducted in Kondoa district with local self-help groups, the characteristics of these practices are analyzed through three themes: the kinds of shared problems the groups address, the governance of internal interaction of the groups, a…

Citizenship Learning: Contextual, Material and Political

AbstractThis chapter focuses on three intertwined dimensions central to contemporary studies of citizenship: the material, the cultural and the political. Based on these, it develops an account of citizenship learning that draws on socio-cultural and socio-material theories of learning and emphasizes everyday encounters and practices as spaces central to learning citizenship. It illustrates with examples from African contexts how contextual, material and political dimensions of citizenship manifest themselves in practices wherein citizenship is performed and learned. In conclusion, it suggests an account of citizenship learning which locates learning in the dynamic interaction between indiv…

Introduction: Learning, Philosophy and African Citizenship

AbstractIn this chapter, we offer a background to the edited volume, the research project that produced it and its content—a series of investigations of the contested notions of citizenship and learning, and their interconnections. We set the agenda for exploring citizenship and learning as defined in philosophical traditions, and as experienced and described in selected locations in Tanzania and Uganda, and also introduce the contributions from the perspectives of both citizenship and conceptualizing learning.

Conclusions: Spaces of Hope and Despair?

AbstractThis concluding chapter summarizes the key findings of the individual chapters. It recaps the diverse conceptualizations of civic space used, as well as the restrictions and civil society responses identified. The chapter concludes with reflections on other perspectives not elaborated in this particular volume and on potential agendas for future research.

Kohti metodologista moninaisuutta? Seuranta- ja arviointitiedon ongelmat kansalaisjärjestöjen kehitysyhteistyön verkostoissa

Towards methodological pluralism? Problems in monitoring and evaluating knowledge in the networks of development co-operation of non-governmental organisations This article examines challenges of monitoring and evaluating knowledge in non-governmental organisations (NGOs) engaged in development co-operation. The article presents central problems of NGOs identified in research literature and describes these problems using the current situation of World Vision Finland as an illustrative example. The problems described include measurement, attribution, accumulation, ownership and multiple interests. Each problem is connected to questions of forms of knowledge and their criteria of validity. Th…

Is no One Left Behind? Inclusive Citizenship in Practices of Self-help Groups in Rural Tanzania

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are based on the Agenda 2030 according to which ‘no one is left behind’, highlighting the need for inclusive citizenship at all levels. This article examines self-help groups in rural Tanzania as potential arenas for inclusive citizenship, which is defined as bottom-up practices of membership, participation, and livelihood enhancement. However, inclusive citizenship is also characterised by exclusions. Therefore, while acknowledging the important contribution of self-help groups for development, this article scrutinises the question of patterns of exclusion, first, in practices of self-help groups, and second, in the relationships bet…

Negotiating CSO Legitimacy in Tanzanian Civic Space

AbstractThis chapter argues that civil society organizations (CSOs) engage in continuous legitimacy negotiations that both shape and are shaped by civic space. It focuses on President John Magufuli’s term in Tanzania, which was labelled as an authoritarian turn characterized by shrinking civic space. The chapter employs broad definitions: of civic space as an arena for action by formal CSOs as well as groups and individuals; of legitimacy as a continuous negotiation of appropriateness; and of democracy as a dynamic form of governance with different manifestations. Drawing on interviews with both professional urban NGOs and rural self-help groups, the chapter investigates restrictions experi…

Institutional Learning in North–South Partnerships: Critical Self-Reflection on Collaboration Between Finnish and Tanzanian Academics

Knowledge production and its possibilities and pitfalls in North-South research partnerships have gained increasing attention. The previous literature has identified certain pervasive challenges, and suggested a variety of ways to change partnerships, ranging from improvement of current collaboration activities to fundamental transformation of the hegemonic Eurocentric criteria for knowledge. Against this backdrop, we ask what kinds of learning can take place in research partnerships. We draw from two sources – an institutional approach and a classical categorization of learning proposed by Gregory Bateson – to develop a heuristic for analyzing institutional learning in North-South research…

Citizenship, Civil Society, and Development: Interconnections in a Global World

1. Citizenship, Civil Society, and Development: Interconnections in a Global World 2. Citizenship Quality: A New Agenda for Development? 3. Water Privatization and Social Citizenship: The Case of Urban Water Sector in Ghana 4. CSO Law in Ethiopia: Considering its Constraints and Consequences 5. Cooperation for the Enhancement of Environmental Citizenship in the Context of Securitization: The Case of an OSCE Project in Serbia 6. The Arab Spring Meets the Occupy Wall Street Movement: Examples of Changing Definitions of Citizenship in a Global World

NGO Legitimacy as a Continuous Negotiation Process : Fostering ‘Good Citizenship’ in Western Uganda

The article draws on and contributes to debates on the legitimacy of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) engaged in development, defining organizational legitimacy as a social construct that is continually negotiated in relationships with diverse audiences. To explore the negotiated nature of NGO legitimacy, the article examines the efforts of a Ugandan NGO, Kabarole Research and Resource Centre (KRC), to foster citizens’ capacities in rural communities in the western part of the country. Drawing on interviews and participant observation, we scrutinize the ways in which KRC balances between different and even contrasting legitimacy expectations stemming from three types of encounters sign…

Contextualizing citizenship in Tanzania

This chapter describes selected features of the contemporary Tanzania that form the context for learning of citizenship in civil society. The chapter grasps the contextual conditions and circumstances of citizenship in Tanzania by looking at historical evolvement of the notion of development, maendeleo, over the period from colonial eras to the postcolonial single-party system to the contemporary multiparty democracy. The chapter continues with analyses of the moments of donor enthusiasm for civil society and NGOs and the recent debates on the shrinking space of civil society. Essentially, different stages presents different idea of an ideal citizen and also different efforts in order to sh…

Developing development studies in North-South partnership: How to support institutional capacity in academia?

‘Knowing Development, Developing Knowledge?’ Introduction to a Special Issue

The articles in this special issue give a flavor of the overall theme ‘Knowing development, developing knowledge’, the title of the second Nordic Conference for Development Research held in Finland...

Kansalaisuus ja kasvatus: Käsitteellisiä ja käytännöllisiä näkökulmia

Communities and Habits of Citizenship: Everyday Participation in Kondoa, Tanzania

AbstractThis chapter contributes to the debates concerning contextualized conceptualizations of citizenship. Based on the work of pragmatist philosopher John Dewey, it offers a definition of citizenship as constructed in everyday communities in the course of taking care of shared issues. Further, it examines the habits of citizenship that are both acquired and reformulated in the processes of participation in these communities. The empirical example of villages in Kondoa District, Tanzania illustrates the diverse communities in which inhabitants participate, and the kinds of habits acquired. Six types of communities, the village community, cultural groups, religious groups, self-help groups…

Kolmannen sektorin muutos ja hybridiorganisaatiot

Kompetenssi, koherenssi ja kovaäänisyys kansalaisten osallistumisessa

Growth Into Citizenship: Framework for Conceptualizing Learning in NGO Interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa

This article develops a theoretical framework for analyzing adult learning in projects aiming to strengthen citizenship implemented by nongovernmental organizations, especially in the contexts of sub-Saharan Africa. On the basis of a review of international development research, we suggest that a new framework should address the need for a conceptualization of learning as a gradual process and for capturing the gap between ideal models and everyday experiences of citizenship. We argue, building on John Dewey’s philosophy, for a framework of growth into citizenship, and introduce the notions of learning as reorganization of habits and the method of democracy as an avenue for learning as nove…

Strengthening Institutional Isomorphism in Development NGOs? Program Mechanisms in an Organizational Intervention

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in international development struggle between being actors in the mainstream or representatives of alternatives to it. However, many NGOs all over the world align with the mainstream and are increasingly similar to each other. This homogenization results from institutional isomorphism, which is affected by their aspirations to be legitimate vis-á-vis the international field. Consultancies are among the main practices to promote normative isomorphism, but little is known about their micro-level dynamics. Drawing on the notion of program mechanisms in realistic evaluation, we scrutinize how external facilitators in organizational development processes enab…

Kehitysyhteistyön arviointi: Hallinnollisia, metodologisia ja eettisiä kysymyksiä

Conclusions

This concluding chapter returns to the questions posed in the introductory chapter, reflects on the answers to these provided by the individual chapters, and reviews the main insights emerging from the five sections of the book. It also discusses an agenda for further exploration, research, design, and experimentation concerning reimagining civil society collaborations in development in order to ‘start from the South’. Research and the work of practitioners are integrated here, as they will need to feed into each other to advance the fundamental transformations called for in this book. nonPeerReviewed

Practices of Citizenship in East Africa

Climbing the Ladder? Community Perspectives on Learning to Be a Good Citizen in Uganda

AbstractThis chapter examines the ways in which members of a rural community in Western Uganda perceive and conceptualize diverse ways of learning to be a good citizen. It analyzes data generated by means of a tool called the ‘ladder of citizenship’, which facilitated explication of local ideas concerning good citizenship, and reflections on how one can ‘climb the ladder’, thus learning to be a better citizen. The chapter draws on, first, the concept of cultural citizenship, which understands citizenship as a continuous learning process that takes place through interaction in informal settings, and second, the notion of folk pedagogies that refers to people’s own conceptualizations of learn…

Introduction

This chapter introduces current debate on civil society collaborations in development and summarizes the contributions of this book to that debate. It relates these contributions to identified needs for transformation in the collaborations between civil society organizations from Global South and those from the Global North and reviews initiatives where such changes have been put into practice. The chapter also briefly describes the specific content of the other chapters included in the book. peerReviewed

Learning in a Ugandan gender advocacy NGO : Organizational growth and institutional wrestling

The chapter explores organizational learning in a Ugandan gender advocacy organization, Action for Development (ACFODE), in the course of history of over 30 years. It identifies three instances of learning: changes in the habits of project implementation, changes in the advocacy approaches, and reformulation the ways of being an organization. Each of these instances include continuous institutional wrestling; between easily defined and measurable training approaches and activities embedded in daily life of communities, between contestation and co-optation in relationship with the state, and between being a structured modern organization or informal members’ meeting place. The chapter shows …

Knowledge practice in development studies: Examples from ethnographies on civil society

Hybrid Identities of Development Studies in Tanzania

This article addresses identities, hierarchies of knowledge and power relations in academia in postcolonial settings, in the context of development studies in Tanzania. Based on literatures on organizational identity and postcolonial hybridity, it establishes a conceptual lens of hybrid identity, scrutinizing how the identity of the discipline of development studies is constructed. Based on analysis of interviews with staff in development studies, we identify four relationships where differences and asymmetries were articulated: with other disciplines, with past development studies, with global theorizing on development, and with partners in the global North. We conclude in discussing how a…

Finland’s action to strengthen civil societies and advance their enabling environment

Kansalaisyhteiskuntien vahvistaminen on tärkeä tavoite Suomen kehityspolitiikassa ja keino saavuttaa muita kehityspoliittisia tavoitteita. Kansalaisyhteiskuntien tukeminen on tärkeää nykyisessä maailmanpoliittisessa tilanteessa, jossa kansalaisyhteiskunnan tila kutistuu ja autokratisoituminen lisääntyy. Tämä ulkoministeriön (UM) tilaustutkimus tarkastelee kansalaisyhteiskuntien vahvistamista ja niille suotuisien toimintaympäristöjen edistämistä Suomen kehityspolitiikassa ja -yhteistyössä. Se keskittyy erityisesti kehityspoliittisen kansalaisyhteiskuntalinjauksen (2017) toimeenpanoon Suomen kehityspolitiikan eri sektoreilla. Tutkimus perustuu dokumenttianalyysiin ja haastatteluihin. Lisäksi …

Practices and habits of citizenship and learning

This chapter discusses the volume’s theoretical underpinnings, which are derived from philosophical pragmatism. One of the key ideas of this research project has been to bring philosophical and empirical research into dialogue by following the principles of pragmatism. Pragmatism sees the relationship between theory and practice as bidirectional: all theories must be subjected to revision in light of practice but, at the same time, a crucial role of theories is to critique current practices. At the level of methodology this implies that theorizing must be tied to what people do. The second central feature of pragmatism is that human experience is a crucial starting point of inquiry; pragmat…

Development Studies in Tanzania: Historical Trajectory and Future Visions

The chapter discusses the history, dilemmas and future visions of Development Studies in Tanzania, especially from the perspective of Institute of Development Studies in the University of Dar es Salaam. It shows how in the 1970s Development Studies played a significant role in the consolidation of state ideology of African socialism among university students, and since then, has gradually evolved into a recognized discipline with MA and PhD programmes. Over the years, the discipline has dealt with dilemmas related to its multidisciplinary nature, state ideologies, international donor agendas and the changing demands concerning academic publications. Recently, Development Studies in Tanzania…

At the Intersection of Instrumentalism, Understanding, and Critique : Reflections on Development Research on Citizenship in Uganda

This special issue showcases four analyses of lived citizenship in Uganda – a country previously known as a donor darling but, recently, better known for its steady slide towards authoritarian rule (Ssentongo 2021, Tapscott 2021, Wilkins et. al. 2021, Wiegratz et. al. 2018). Individually, the articles draw on and contribute to diverse strands of debate within the field of citizenship studies. As a collection, however, they serve to illustrate a space characterized by three different knowledge interests in development-related research on African societies. A central contention is that the very notion of ‘development-related research’ requires definition; as a field, it is constituted and its…

Introduction : Civil Society Responses to Changing Civic Spaces

AbstractThis introductory chapter contextualizes how the volume resonates to current global trends and research debates concerning democracy, civil society, and civic space. The chapter shows how the debates on the decline of democracy, civil society actors, and changing civil spaces underpin the book’s agenda of exploring civil society responses to civic space. The chapter argues in favour of contextual and relational analyses of how civil society actors and civic space are negotiated, in the context of historically formed governance systems. It also provides an overview of the chapters of the book underlying their original contributions to ongoing debates.

Conclusions

Participatory methodology in exploring citizenship : A critical learning process

In this chapter, we shift the focus from analysing citizenship practices to reflecting on learning within the research process of exploring everyday citizenship. To this end, we provide a narrative of our experimentation with participatory research methodology when investigating the daily practices and participation patterns of citizens in two districts in rural Uganda. “Experimentation”, in this context, refers to an endeavour in which we reflectively tested actualizing the participatory methodology that we considered the most appropriate for this research. peerReviewed

John Dewey’s notion of social intelligence

This chapter focuses on Deweyan understanding of intelligence as fundamentally social. This understanding differs from the common conceptions of intelligence as a feature of an isolated individual and/or as a possession of an elite. Starting with a look at the relevance of reconceptualizing intelligence, the chapter continues by describing how, according to Dewey’s theory, intelligence forms, manifests and cumulates in interactions. It then discusses the presumable implications of Dewey’s theory in terms of the contextuality of intelligent action, the importance of taking relevant experience-based information into account, the use of a particular method of inquiry, and modification of educa…