Search results for "Uganda"

Exploring Obutyamye as Material Citizenship in Busoga Subregion, Uganda

2022

This article explores how being a citizen is inexorably bound up with the resources individuals own and deploy to support livelihoods in the rural locations of postcolonial states. Drawing on the works of Kabeer (2006) and Baglioni (2016), the article zooms in on how citizenship is manifestly and inescapably material in the Busoga subregion of eastern Uganda. Data for the article were collected using qualitative methods among beneficiaries of antipoverty programmes implemented by Action for Development (ACFODE), a national non-governmental organization (NGO). Findings show that, locally, citizenship is understood as obutyamye, connoting an (un)equal experience of being in, for and with the …

Unravelling Church Land : Transformations in the Relations between Church, State and Community in Uganda

2019

Christian churches control substantial areas of land in Africa. While intensifying struggles over their holdings are partly due to the increased pressure on land in general, they also reflect transformations in the relations through which churches’ claims to land are legitimized, the increased association of churches with business, and churches’ unique positioning as both institutions and communities. This article presents the trajectory of relations between church, state and community in Uganda from the missionary acquisition of land in the colonial era to the unravelling of church landholding under Museveni. Drawing on long‐term ethnographic fieldwork, the authors argue that claims to chu…

Participatory methodology in exploring citizenship : A critical learning process

2020

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

Attributions and paradoxes of agency in socially sustainable development : perspectives from small-scale NGOs in Jinja, Uganda

2014

During the past decades, sustainable development has become an important phenomenon in the global development discourse. The concept has been widely used by both large international bodies such as the United Nations as well as small grassroots organization. In the beginning, the interest was mainly in questions of environmental and ecological aspects of the concept but especially since the introduction of the Human Development Approach the importance of social and cultural aspects of sustainable development became more important. In the discussions on Human Development and sustainable development, the people are in the center of the discussion. Both concepts emphasize the importance of agen…

Poliitikot seisovat muurahaiskeon päällä : valtionrakennusperformansseja Ugandassa

2021

The everyday and spectacle of subdued citizenship in northern Uganda

2019

Drawing on ethnographic research in the Acholi town of Kitgum in northern Uganda, this chapter illustrates how citizenship practices are embedded in particular relationships between the state and its citizens. Two key arenas for learning are identified: the everyday, which in this region is tinged by memories of past violence and fears of its recurrence, and moments of spectacular state performance such as the burial of a prominent politician. The chapter shows how practices of citizenship are learned through embodied experiences: by taking part in public debate, by voting or by greeting a flag, but also by running away from a soldier or by staying quiet due to fear. The chapter’s overall a…

Gendered citizenship in rural Uganda : Localized, exclusive and active

2020

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…

Gender and development - no-man's land revisited : learning from men's inclusion discourse and practice in Uganda

2006

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

2020

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 …

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

2022

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…