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- Convenors:
-
Lotje de Vries
(Wageningen University)
Tim Glawion (Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institut)
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- Format:
- Panels
- Location:
- PG0VS
- Start time:
- 30 June, 2017 at
Time zone: Europe/Zurich
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
The panel investigates the interplay of rural and urban dynamics within secondary and tertiary administrative centers and thus aims to explore the construction of African states through diverging images from and of the periphery.
Long Abstract:
Administrative centers in peripheral Africa connect the urban to the rural in two directions. Citizens in the periphery perceive secondary and tertiary towns as hubs of urban activity and possibilities. They engage them for their state institutions that are supposed to provide security and justice, as well as public services such as health and education. At the same time, institutions and individuals at the state's center, the capital, often view these decentralized towns as profoundly 'rural'. National ministries will direct few resources to those rural centers, and key state personnel might prefer to spend as little time as possible in their affected localities.
We invite contributors to reflect on how citizens' experiences with administrative centers outside the capital shape the image of the state. Among other topics, we intend to look into the shifts of building or maintaining security, the flows of revenues from and to the periphery, and the presence and impact of external actors. The panel investigates the interplay of rural and urban dynamics within these secondary and tertiary administrative centers and thus aims to explore the construction of African states through diverging images from and of the periphery.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Ben Jones (University of East Anglia)
Paper short abstract:
This paper looks at the evolving identities in Katine sub-county in Soroti District in eastern Uganda. The paper describes a place that is one step down from the district centre and demonstrates the continued ambivalence and unevenness of the construction of the state in rural Uganda.
Paper long abstract:
This paper looks at the evolving identities in Katine sub-county in Soroti District in eastern Uganda. The paper describes a place that is one step down from the district centre and demonstrates the continued ambivalence and unevenness of the construction of the state in rural Uganda. As Uganda's older district capitals take on a more confident urban style, sub-counties and new district capitals become new sites of provincialism. There are two recent developments I would like to explore. First the politics of a large development project in the sub-county, where the budget of the NGO dwarfed the spending of the sub-county offices. NGO workers affected a cosmopolitan identity and adopted a position of condescension and detachment, fitting comfortably into what Bayart has described as the logic of extraversion in the state in Africa. Second struggles over 'idlers' across the sub-county. These young men, often with an education and a desire for an urban future, challenge rural identities in the area. In exploring these two aspects of identity a rural Ugandan sub-county I emphasise diverging images from and within a peripheral place.
Sylvain Batianga-Kinzi (Université de Bangui)
Paper short abstract:
Ce papier retrace le processus de la rencontre du rural et de l’urbain dans une dynamique conflictuelle en Centrafrique et plus particulière à Bambari. Il met en exergue la cohabitation entre deux formes de l’autorité : une autorité de l’Etat et une autorité rebelle.
Paper long abstract:
Ma réflexion consiste à faire apparaitre le visage de certaines villes en République Centrafricaine non comme un centre des loisirs et des possibilités pour la réalisation des rêves des habitants des zones périphériques, mais comme une endroit d'incertitudes où se drainent malgré tout les personnes se trouvant en insécurité. Dans un contexte de généralisation des violences liés aux conflits armés aussi bien dans les villes et que dans les milieux, certaines villes centrafricaines à l'instar de celle de Bambari sont devenues un havre de paix. Les déplacements de la population participent à la création, à l'intérieur de la ville, d'une nouvelle configuration des quartiers avec l'apparition des sites des déplacés. L'appellation des quartiers-sites ou des villages-sites dans la ville de Bambari confère une forme socio-culturelle et politique inhérente aux différentes figures d'autorités et de mode d'organisation transposé des villages vers les villes. Du point de vue l'autorité de l'Etat, la coprésence des groupes armés avec une ligne de commandement et des services déconcentrés de l'Etat introduit un bicéphalisme dans la gestion des affaires étatiques. Dans certaines villes comme Bakala où tous les représentants de l'Etat n'y sont plus à cause des conflits armés, les fonctions de l'Etat sont assurées par les groupes rebelles. Ce papier montre finement le processus de la ruralisation de l'urbain avec l'avènement des sites des personnes déplacées. Il s'agit également de montrer les interactions entres l'autorité étatique décentralisée avec les groupes armés dans le processus de la fabrique de la paix et de la sécurité
Lisa Pech (SFB 700 Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood)
Paper short abstract:
This study examines and maps the impact of armed conflict on changes in urban land use in Goma, capital of North Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, between 2005 and 2014. It combines analysis of very high resolution satellite imagery with field work.
Paper long abstract:
Patterns and paces of urban development in countries with limited statehood and armed conflict differ decisively from urban development under peaceful circumstances in so called consolidated states. The analysis of detailed satellite imagery complemented by field research provides a micro-level view on urban land use, distribution, and change as well as their causes. This study examines the local-level impact of armed conflict by analyzing changes in urban land use in Goma, capital of North Kivu in the eastern periphery of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The observation period from 2005 to 2015 covers the third Congo War and the post-conflict era with ongoing episodes of violence. The methodological steps taken are, first, the visual analysis and change detection of very high resolution imagery from three different sensors and years, second, ground-truthing through fieldwork and, third, cartographic work for the depiction of Goma's development.
This study delves into the analysis from four different angles on how armed conflict and limited statehood have transformed the city spatially: The influences of rural-urban displacement, the presence of humanitarian NGOs, military deployment and church(es).
The study demonstrates how the analysis of satellite imagery combined with in-depth on the ground site knowledge contributes to detailed mapping of urban land use development and its causes in secondary towns.