Social Movements and Political Culture

Summary
This research programme aims to address new social movements and organizational forms in Africa against the background of the continent’s changing political cultures. It will provide a general, open-ended framework for research aimed at answering a number of questions:
- why and how people seek modes of social, cultural and political expression in new organizational forms;
- what the new developments are in the political cultures and governance structures of the continent, and, more specifically, why democratization processes have not been very successful;
- how insecurity takes on new forms and why certain violent conflicts persist; and
- why ‘traditional’ ideologies and social mechanisms of mediation and tolerance seem to diminish in force, be reinvented, or become problematic in new contexts; how African populations struggle to keep their inherited socio-cultural and survival mechanisms, and how and why they redefine ideals of modernity, development and belonging in their own terms.

The programme considers conditions of international flows of people, resources and capital, Africa’s place in the global system, and the dynamics of local ideologies, emerging social networks, political struggles and cultural change. The research perspective is multi-disciplinary and the approach interactionist: viewing history, structure and human agency as interlocking factors. While the execution of the programme is based on empirical academic research, cooperation is sought with policy-making institutions and persons (NGOs, international organizations, ministries) to develop specific research questions and approaches that may yield insights that could be used in improving policy plans and initiatives. As to academic exchange, the theme group’s programme will connect with African visiting scholars and our existing partners in Africa.

Sub programmes (each sub programme consists of several research projects):
1. Changes in political culture and the emergence of new social profiles/movements
2. Liberalization and the remaking of the socio-political order
3. Insecurity and conflict production

History of the research group

ASC Researchers:
Jan Abbink, Han van Dijk, Stephen Ellis, Piet Konings, Benjamin Soares, Klaas van Walraven

Head of the theme group: Jan Abbink

PhD's:
Abreham Alemu, André van Dokkum, Berhanu Gebeyehu, Margot Leegwater, Inge Ruigrok, Martin van Vliet, Lotje de Vries

Collaborating institutes:
Université de N’Djamena (Chad); Wageningen University and Research Centre; Institute of Ethiopian Studies (AAU, Addis Ababa), Ethiopian Languages Research Centre (AAU, Addis Ababa); Institute of Security Studies, Pretoria & Cape Town (South Africa); Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherches sur les Dynamiques Sociales et le Développement Locale (Niamey); Université Abdou Moumouni (Niamey, Niger); Nederlands Instituut voor Zuidelijk Afrika (Amsterdam); OSSREA (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia); Department of Religious Studies, University of Jos (Nigeria).