PhD research: Understanding Urban Protest in a Context of War: an Ethnographic Analysis of ‘Urban Political Terrains’ in Eastern DRC

Date
October 2019 to September 2024
Keywords
political ethnography
urban resistance
conflicts (violent)
everyday politics
eastern DRC
Institutions
Institut Supérieur Pédagogique de Bukavu (Congo-Kinshasa)
Pole Institute (Congo-Kinshasa)
Research fields
Law and Political Science

This research project offers a theoretically and empirically grounded analysis of the complex forms of urban political resistance, activism and protest in the war-torn region of Eastern Congo. It investigates everyday forms of resistance and contentious politics in the context of protracted violence. The purpose is to look how contentious politics are shaped in the urban contexts of Eastern DRC cities as Goma and Bukavu. The research project wants to move beyond known notions of power versus resistance, rural violence versus urban protest and show urban protest is shaped by and shapes politics in a context of ongoing violence. It aims to do so through a political ethnography of the actors involved.