Searching for a New Kenya

Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-1-108-82640-2
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 284 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 418 g

Searching for a New Kenya analyses public discussion in urban Kenya, focusing on the gatherings of citizens, both in-person and online, where people discuss issues of common concern to shed light on the role public discussion plays in politics and how social media affects political movements. Through rich ethnographic study of politics on the ground and online in Mombasa, Stephanie Diepeveen brings a fresh perspective on the wider challenges and dynamics of negotiating political narratives across protracted historical debates and changing digital media. Based on a critical revision of Hannah Arendt's ideas about action and power, this study explores the different dynamics of public talk in practice. It contributes to wider debates about the place and limitations of the Western canon in relation to the study of politics elsewhere, while also offering a nuanced view of why and how certain terms of debate persist in Kenya, and where the potential for change lies for public talk across changing media.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Diepeveen, Stephanie

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Afrikanische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftssektoren & Branchen Medien-, Informations und Kommunikationswirtschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Part I. Re-thinking Publics from Kenya: 1. Introduction; 2. The history of publics in Mombasa: people, media and the state; Part II. Characterising Publics: 3. Publics in the streets: Mombasa's street parliaments; 4. Publics in civil society and online: Mombasa's youth parliaments; Part III. Situating Publics in Time and Space: 5. Our turn to starve: material insecurity, idleness and publics; 6. Publics and the contested state of land in Kenya; 7. The obfuscation of spatial constraints on Facebook; Part IV. The Power of Publics: 8. Popular politics and publics during the 2013 general elections; 9. In the presence of fear: violence and publics in Kenya; 10. The individual spectator and the role of imagination in publics; 11. Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Diepeveen, Stephanie
Stephanie Diepeveen is a Researcher at the University of Cambridge. She is co-editor of the Journal of Eastern African Studies special issue on 'Publics in Africa in a Digital Age'. Stephanie was previously a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Darwin College, Cambridge (2017-2020). She has been researching everyday expression of politics in Kenya since 2008, both individually and through interdisciplinary collaborations, supported, among others, by UKRI-GCRF, the Alborada Research Fund and the Centre of Governance and Human Rights, Cambridge.