Building democracy from below : lessons from Western Uganda

How to achieve democratisation in the neopatrimonial and agrarian environments that predominate in sub-Saharan Africa continues to present a challenge for both development theory and practice. Drawing on intensive fieldwork in Western Uganda, this paper argues that Charles Tilly’s ‘democratisation as process’ provides us with the framework required to explain the ways in which particular kinds of association can advance democratisation from below. Moving beyond the current focus on how elite-bargaining and certain associational forms may contribute to liberal forms of democracy, this approach helps identify the intermediate mechanisms involved in building democracy from below, including the significance of challenging categorical inequalities, notably through the role of producer groups, and of building trust networks, cross-class alliances and synergistic relations between civil and political society. The evidence and mode of analysis deployed here help suggest alternative routes for supporting local efforts to build democracy from below in sub-Saharan Africa

Clientelism as civil society? Unpacking the relationship between clientelism and democracy at the local level in South Africa

This article, building on analyses from the global south, attempts to reframe democratic expectations by considering where previously maligned practices such as clientelism may hold moments of democracy. It does so by comparing the theory of civil society with that of clientelism, and its African counterpart neo-patrimonialism. It argues that clientelism as civil society may fulfil democratic tasks such as holding the (local) state accountable, strengthening civil and political liberties and providing channels of access for previously marginalised groups. Clientelism is not necessarily a reflection of imposed power relations but, at times, can demonstrate a conscious political strategy, to generate development, on the part of its protagonists.IS

Rethinking the dialectics of rural and urban in African art and scholarship:

This issue of Critical Interventions is dedicated to rethinking the dialectics of the rural and the urban in African art and scholarship. Inspired by the general theme of the European Conference of African Studies (ECAS/AEGIS) in Basel (June 28 to July 1, 2017), Urban Africa – Urban Africans: New Encounters of the Rural and the Urban, the guest editors of this issue hosted two panels on the relationship of urban-based artists and their interest in rural topographies, aesthetics, and cultural practices

Shifting Cultural Capital: Kenyan Arts in Digital Spaces

The discourse on African arts has, in the past, been framed by a dialectic between earlier traditions and practices (Kasfir 1999) and contemporary modes that face the problematic question of ‘authenticity’ (Oguibe and Enwezor 1999). More recently, scholars such as Bischoff (2017) and Bristow (2017) have recognized the emergence of so-called African digital arts, in a context where ‘Africa has certainly embraced new technologies, as is prevalent in the rising statistics of mobile phone, smartphone and Internet usage in many parts of the continent’ (Bischoff 2017, p. 261). Alongside this, a growing discussion of the impact of digital tools and technology in the arts and culture in general has moved beyond earlier ontological concerns to socio-political aspects of how these are ‘ dramatically transforming traditional curatorial practice and by extension archival practice, so that we are moving from a gatekeeping model to an open model steeped in digital relationships across global networks and the Internet’ (Giannini and Bowen 2016, p. 237). This chapter focuses on how digital technology impacts further on this discourse by challenging the cultural capital that is typically associated with curatorial practice, the gallery, and the marketplace (Bourdieu 1986) and how digital art practices can challenge notions of authenticity in the discourse on African art. Through a range of cases of Kenyan multi-media artists that operate virtually and physically, and stakeholders such as bloggers, the chapter seeks to identify whether a shift in cultural capital is emerging from popular and subcultural online spaces and the interactions that these bring about