Strangers, indigenes and settlers: Contested geographies of citizenship in Nigeria

Kraxberger, Brennan

doi:10.1080/13562570500078576

Cited by 37 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…The practices of citizenship in many spaces is characterised by discrimination in terms of rights to contest for political office, especially at the sub-national level, and access to and competition for the resources of the state, including services, such as admission to higher educational institutions. As many scholars have noted, discriminatory policies have provoked or aggravate inter-communal tensions sometimes leading to violent conflicts in which civil society groups may be implicated (Mamdani 2002;Kraxberger 2005;Human Rights Watch 2006;Hultin 2013). One major implication of the discriminatory practices of bifurcated citizenship is that it drains society of trust, thereby reducing the levels of social capital.…”

Section: Neoliberal Reforms Civil Society and Citizen (Dis) Empowermentmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…To be sure, there is a lot to learn from studies of citizenship as status and as practices carried out in multiple spaces in relation to governance and the empowerment of marginalised groups (Prokhovik 1998;McEwan 2005;Kraxberger 2005). In these wise, the efficacy of civil society requires that citizens ''must have access to information around which to mobilize to claim rights, creating spaces of involvement and building capacities for political engagement'' (McEwan 2005:987).…”

Section: Neoliberal Reforms Civil Society and Citizen (Dis) Empowermentmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Civil Society Efficacy, Citizenship and Empowerment in Africa

Aiyede

2016

Voluntas

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This paper contributes to the debate on the limited efficacy of civil society in Africa. It examines the complex interface between notions of civil society and citizenship within the context of the postcolonial state in Africa. It argues that the bifurcated character of citizenship is implicated in the inefficacy of civil society. This is underlined by the limited achievements in social citizenship, aggravated by the economic crisis and neoliberal reforms of the 1980s and 1990s as well as the politics of regime sustenance. Political disengagement, drain on the moral content of public life and diminished collective orientation of citizens, aggravated conflicts within society, thereby, promoting a democratisation of disempowerment and a disorganised civil society.Résumé Cet article contribue au débat sur l'efficacité de la société civile en Afrique. Il se penche sur l'interface complexe qui existe entre les notions de société civile et de citoyenneté dans le contexte de l'É tat postcolonial africain. Il soutient que le caractère bifurqué de la citoyenneté, entre indigène et colon, joue un rôle dans l'inefficacité de la société civile. La citoyenneté n'est pas caractérisée par une conscience d'égalité et d'appartenance collective à une communauté politique au dessein unificateur. Cela est souligné par les réalisations limitées observées dans le domaine de la citoyenneté sociale et aggravé par les crises économiques et les réformes néolibérales des années 80 et 90, ainsi que par les politiques de subsistance de régime. Le désengagement politique, le faible contenu moral de la vie publique et l'effritement de la confiance sociale des citoyens aggravent les conflits au sein de la société, démocratisant ainsi la perte d'autonomie et désorganisant la société civile.Zusammenfassung Diese Abhandlung leistet einen Beitrag zur Debatte über die Effizienz der Bürgergesellschaft in Afrika. Sie untersucht die komplexe Verbindung zwischen den Konzepten Bürgergesellschaft und Bürgerschaft im Kontext des postkolonialen Afrikas. Es wird behauptet, dass der zwischen den indigenen Einwohnern und den Siedlern gespaltene Bürgerschaftscharakter mit der Ineffizienz der Bürgergesellschaft in Verbindung steht. Die Bürgerschaft ist nicht durch ein Bewusstsein über Gleichheit und kollektive Zugehörigkeit zu einer politischen Gemeinschaft mit einem vereinenden Zweck gekennzeichnet. Hervorgehoben wird dies von den begrenzten Erfolgen in der sozialen Bürgerschaft, zu denen erschwerend die Wirtschaftkrise und die neoliberalen Reformen der achtziger und neunziger Jahre sowie die Politik zum Erhalt des Regimes hinzukommen. Politisches Disengagement, schwacher moralischer Inhalt im öffentlichen Leben und ein aufgebrauchtes soziales Vertrauen der Bürger verschärften die Konflikte innerhalb der Gesellschaft, wodurch die Entmachtung demokratisiert und die Bürgergesell-schaft desorganisiert wurden.Resumen El presente documento contribuye al debate sobre la eficacia de la sociedad civil en Á frica. Examina la compleja interfaz entre nociones de sociedad ...

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Section: Neoliberal Reforms Civil Society and Citizen (Dis) Empowermentmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Neoliberal Reforms Civil Society and Citizen (Dis) Empowermentmentioning

confidence: 98%

Civil Society Efficacy, Citizenship and Empowerment in Africa

Aiyede

2016

Voluntas

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“…However, it also suggests that the general neglect of demographic factors by many scholars has not been helpful in furthering our understanding of African conflict. Indeed, there is considerable evidence that the effect of the interaction between our intervening variables and high population growth played a major role in instigating not only the civil wars examined above but also contemporary conflicts in Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda, among others (Boone, 2007a;Green, 2007;Kraxberger, 2005;Wood et al, 2004). In particular it is possible that attention to oil and other natural resources as a cause of conflict has overshadowed the way poverty, land ownership, ethnicity and demographic change has led to violence in such countries as Angola and Nigeria, both of saw 'sons of the soil' conflicts in the latecolonial period contribute to full-scale civil wars after independence (Anthony, 2002;Birmingham, 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Coined by Weiner (1978) in regards to India, this type of conflict has received a growing amount of attention from scholars of Africa in recent years (Bates, 2008;Boone, 2007a;Dunn, 2009;Englebert, 2009;Geschiere and Jackson, 2006;Green, 2007;Jackson, 2006;Kraxberger, 2005). Yet heretofore no one has attempted to explain its origins through a political demography framework.…”

Section: Africa Under High Population Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Political Demography of Conflict in Modern Africa

Green

2012

Civil Wars

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Abstract:Sub-Saharan Africa has shifted from having a very low population density and no population growth in the 19 th century to an extremely high population growth today. While some political demographers have linked the continent's high population growth rate to various civil wars, we argue here that a more important cause behind contemporary conflict has been this rapid demographic shift over the past century and a half. Specifically, we show that low population densities historically contributed to poverty, communal and unequal property rights, and high levels of ethnic diversity in the pre-colonial and colonial periods. In the post-colonial era, however, these three variables have provided the opportunities, motives and collective action necessary for conflict, thereby combining with high population growth rates to produce large amounts of 'sons of the soil' conflict over land. To test this argument we examine cases of contemporary civil wars in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where we find significant evidence supporting the theory. We then examine the counterfactual case of the Rwandan genocide, where we not only find that the genocide was not a 'sons of the soil' conflict, but that Rwanda's historically high population density played a indirect but significant role in the genocide.

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“…They co-exist and overlap with the modern state without trying to replace it, and by so doing have a feedback effect on "old" imagined communities (e.g., the national state) and their relationship to society, by virtue of their capacity to delegitimize, weaken, or challenge political allegiance to the nation-state, if not infiltrate it directly. And it is the proliferation of a wide range of competing and overlapping communities, with their own armed forces of protection and own allegiances, that leads to contested geographies of citizenship-and thus fragmented sovereignty-in much of the developing world (see Litzinger 2006;Kraxberger 2005). In this environment the dominion of a single nation-state is challenged but not defeated, while coercive capacity, rule of law, and citizen loyalties are divided, not shared, albeit within and across the formal territorial bounds of the nation-state.…”

Section: Urban Violence As Challenge To the State's Monopoly Of Coercmentioning

confidence: 99%

Irregular armed forces, shifting patterns of commitment, and fragmented sovereignty in the developing world

Davis

2010

Theor Soc

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Historically, the study of state formation has involved a focus on the urban and national conditions under which states monopolize the means of coercion, generate legitimacy, and marshal sufficient economic resources to wage war against enemies while sustaining citizen allegiance through the extension of social programs, new forms of national solidarity, and citizenship. In Charles Tilly's large body of work, these themes loomed large, and they have re-emerged in slightly reformulated ways in an unfinished manuscript that reflected on the relationship between capital and coercion in which he also integrated the element of commitment-or networks of trust-into the study of state formation. This article develops these same ideas but in new directions, casting them in light of contemporary rather than historical developments. Taking as its point of departure the accelerating rates of criminal violence and citizen insecurity in cities of the developing world, this essay suggests that random and targeted violence increasingly perpetrated by "irregular" armed forces pose a direct challenge to state legitimacy and national sovereignty. Through examination of urban and transnational non-state armed actors who use violence to accumulate capital and secure economic dominion, and whose activities reveal alternative networks of commitment, power, authority, and even self-governance, this essay identifies contemporary parallels with the pre-modern period studied by Charles Tilly, arguing that current patterns challenge prevailing national-state forms of sovereignty. Drawing evidence primarily from Mexico and other middle income developing countries that face growing insecurity and armed violence, the article examines the new "spatialities" of irregular armed force, how they form the basis for alternative networks of coercion, allegiance, and reciprocity Theor Soc (

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Strangers, indigenes and settlers: Contested geographies of citizenship in Nigeria

Cited by 37 publications

References 24 publications

Civil Society Efficacy, Citizenship and Empowerment in Africa

Civil Society Efficacy, Citizenship and Empowerment in Africa

The Political Demography of Conflict in Modern Africa

Irregular armed forces, shifting patterns of commitment, and fragmented sovereignty in the developing world

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