This proposal is an extension of the SNF project on “The Work of State Imageries” from
2009 through 2012. It brings the PhD case studies in Liberia, Guinea and closely
related research projects in Côte d’Ivoire and Mali together (SNSF 100012-117766 and
submitted project “Politics of Governance”). It will lead to the completion of the two
PhD case studies and a more comprehensive understanding of state imageries,
governance and everyday social reality in the West African conflict region. The aim of
the project remains to understand how imageries of governance and the state emerge
and are shaped and how they influence everyday practices of the local population in
conflict-affected West Africa. The second phase will build on the findings of the
comprehensive fieldwork conducted in the West African countries since 2009 and the
extensive conceptual and theoretical work at the Institute of Social Anthropology.
The fields of enquiry remain the urban and peri-urban spaces where the two PhD
students have worked since 2009/2011: Monrovia, Liberia; and Kankan, Guinea. The
project continues to document and analyse the practices through which local actors try
to find a way out of the crisis and to shape their relationships with the state – a theme
that is still neglected in recent research. First results of the project already led to a
conceptual rethinking of governance and imagination in general and of the West
African conflict beyond the immediate agenda of the main political actors in particular.
The key questions are bound to this promising strand of research and reflection. They
are refined with regard to the already existing findings and theoretical work:
•How do imageries of the state and governance affect the political articulation?
•How does this political articulation shape the formation of social spaces and actors?
•How do the imageries of state and governance feed into the societal imaginary?
•How do they affect the practice of governance and social practice in general?
Approach: The initial assumption of 2008 that imageries of governance and the state
are continuously shaped and reshaped by all social actors in everyday encounters, as,
for instance, between government employees and ordinary citizens, has proved true.
Because of the often latent, ephemeral or nascent character of such processes, the
present extension remains based on the actor-oriented, inductive approach avoiding
normative Western concepts. It has already served as a successful methodology since
2009.
Methodology: The methodology relies on the Emic Evaluation Approach (EEA) that has
already served as the central research tool during the first period of the project. As all
researchers are well embedded into local networks, the feasibility is excellent.
Empirical research will develop further on two crosscutting questions about a) how the
imagery of the state is shaped by the people in everyday encounters, and b) how this
imagery is translated into everyday practices, based on the shaping process in social
spaces. The case studies, carried out by two already appointed PhD researchers, will
further address the two questions in different but related social and economic settings
in the urban and suburban spaces of Guinea and Liberia. One case study will be
completed in June 2013, the other needs additional fieldwork and will end in June
2015. Complementary research is conducted by the head of the project in Côte d’Ivoire
and by the researchers of closely related projects in Guinea, Mali and other African
countries.
Cooperation: The project is fully integrated in the Research Group on Political
Trans-formations at the Institute of Social Anthropology, Basel, and closely cooperates
with partners in Zürich, Hamburg, Uppsala, Monrovia, Kankan, Bouaké and Bamako.
A concluding conference on “State Imageries” is planned with these partners for 2013
at the University of Monrovia. At a more theoretical level, the researchers continuously
exchange with colleagues at the universities of Freiburg, Leipzig, Leiden, Stellenbosch
and Witwatersrand South Africa, Yale University New Haven CN, Dartmouth College
Hanover NH, and CODESRIA, Dakar, Senegal.