Practices of Citizenship in East Africa

Abstract

In this book, we offer a number of illustrations of what citizenship means and how it is practiced in selected locations in Tanzania and Uganda. Moreover, we discuss the potential contribution of philosophical pragmatism when it comes to conceptualizing citizenship in general, and in everyday practices in these East African contexts in particular. Therefore, we hope, on the one hand, that the phrase “philosophical pragmatism” in the book title will not scare off those interested in practices in these particular contexts, and on the other, that those having a more conceptual interest will be inspired to reflect further on the implications of these particular contexts for theorizing about citizenship. In other words, we would like to invite any reader interested in citizenship, from everyday practice to philosophical conceptualization to join us for a dialogue. Three ongoing debates have motivated us to engage in a dialogue between development research and pragmatist philosophy. First, we respond to the eagerness of development research to contribute to “intentional develop- ment” (Cowen & Shenton 1996) and, therefore, to use theories and concepts in a normative way: to describe what should be the end state of “develop- ment” and accordingly, to prescribe needed interventions in order to reach the desired situation. While, as researchers, we cannot, and should not, escape our normative ideas of what the good life is, our analytical endea- vour nevertheless seeks a relatively non-normative starting point with a focus on analyzing the present situation. Second, we seek to adhere to the methodological principle of philosophical pragmatism according to which concepts and theories should be informed by human practices and devel- oped through joint inquiry. In accordance with this view, our aim is to investigate selected philosophical concepts through inquiry into practices in African locations, which are often marginalized from philosophical theori- zation. Third, we were motivated by the recent debates in development stu- dies concerning the importance of civil society and citizen engagement in societal change and, consequently, chose the notion of citizenship, exten- sively discussed in both development research and philosophy, as the locus of our inquiry. These three motivations, discussed in detail below, set the academic fra- mework for the book, which is not clearly situated in any particular discipline. It represents a genuine attempt to make sense of everyday citizenship by drawing on contributions from a variety of disciplines. It presents selected findings from a four-year research project, “Growth into citizenship in civil society encounters” (2015–2019), and is thus an important milestone in a collaborative research journey that has combined expertise in educational philosophy, philosophical pragmatism, adult education, sociology, political science and development studies from four universities: the University of Dodoma, Tanzania; Makerere University, Uganda; and the Universities of Jyväskylä and Oulu, Finland.