Political capabilities for democratisation in Uganda: good governance or popular organisation building?

Habits of contributing citizenship

“…They were eager to learn about village banking models, establishing and governing associations, and how to open bank accounts and use mobile-banking services; in the course of this, their extravillage networks with NGOs, government officials and universities underwent continual expansion, and their practices changed on the basis of new knowledge. Such activities did not directly impact on their political capabilities (King 2015) or increase their awareness of rights (Gaventa & Barrett 2012), but they certainly empowered members' self-identity. Many of the women with whom we talked were very proud of their ability to lead successful groups and to learn and apply new technologies, or of being members of groups that initiated new ideas for the entire village.…”

Understanding Social Accountability: Politics, Power and Building New Social Contracts

“…Campbell et al (2010) suggest that initiatives can attempt to mitigate these effects by incorporating the provision of citizen education and capacity-building into interventions. Studies of demand-side mobilisation in Bangladesh (Kabeer et al, 2010), and also, more recently, in Uganda (King, 2015), suggest that securing the participation of poorer citizens in initiatives for social justice may do better when linked directly to potential livelihood and economic gains. Finally, socially subordinate groups sometimes rely on informal methods for extracting accountability, and the review suggested that these strategies are often pursued in contexts where governance is weak and civil society lacks the capacity or inclination to hold civil servants to account (Hossain, 2010).…”

Rethinking Civil Society in Development: Scales and Situated Hegemonies

“…From a Gramscian point of view, localities might host common sense, the uncritical worldview that consents to hegemonies based not only on economic relationships in modern capitalist sense as suggested by the original concept, but also on age, gender, ethnicity, kin, religion, as well as clientelist and neo-patrimonial relations (Hydén, 2013;Igoe, 2003). Consequently, the counterhegemonic action might take place in everyday resistance to multiple hegemonies combining gradual economic and political organising (King, 2015), rather than mobilizing for radical transformation.…”