Please join us for a seminar, " Relays of Power: Elections, Incorporation, and the politics of Informality in Kampala, Uganda" by Dr Adam R. Culver, on Wednesday, August 18, 2018. Dr. Culver is a faculty member at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA.
Abstract:
Why did President Museveni lose the backing of Kampala’s boda-boda (motorcycle
taxi) drivers, a group that was previously his most important and reliable base of
urban support? This study relates the shifting significance of boda-boda politics in
Kampala to the governmental rationalities and modes of rule that have shaped
political life in Museveni’s Uganda. I suggest that we can understand the recent
reconfiguration of boda-boda politics as the effect of a desire for political community
that has been frustrated by key aspects of the Museveni government’s efforts to
generate and govern consent. Although the concept of “informality” is generally
used to refer to economic activities that elude state regulation and control, I contend
that, at least in this instance, informality is actively produced by the state in ways that
disrupt associational life, undermine capacities for autonomous organization, and
distort the meaning of citizenship. Ultimately, informalization functions as an
instrument of rule that constitutes a political domain in which the rule of law is
largely absent, patronage networks predominate, and relations of subjection and
dependence are secured.
Keywords: Uganda, multiparty elections, informality, political community,
democracy, incorporation
Papers may be picked from the MISR Library.
Attendance is limited to 60 persons. To register please email: communicationatmisr@gmail.com
For further information, please call: 02003052000