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Abstract
A great deal of work has been done on the nature of rights and the definitions of citizenship. However, little work has been done that explores how people perceive their citizenship rights and how they act on these perceptions especially in growing cities. High and low intensity protests have inscribed their presence and voice in Kampala city’s streets, thereby becoming integral components of the city landscape. The paper uses critical urban theory, insurgent urbanism and citizenship as its conceptual framework to: 1) examine the terrain of struggle and militancy and, how Kampala residents engage with the state beyond formal processes; and, 2) assess government surveillance actions aimed at (de) constructing of citizenship in the city. The paper illuminates these questions and elaborates the notion of insurgent urbanism using Mabira forest demonstrations, September 2009 Buganda riots, and Walk-to-Work’ (W2W) protests in Kampala City. The paper argues that the currents of militancy are very active across the city and the institutionalization and planning for insurgent claims and associated government responses in the broader urban policy terrain across the country.
Highlights
The city has become a defining life space for most of the world’s population with over 50% classified as urban and a further 61% becoming urban by 2025
This paper explores the urban insurgency debate by: 1) examining the terrain of struggle and how Kampala residents engage with the state; 2) reviewing surveillance actions aimed at constructing citizenship and rights to the city
Much as the protests have subsided, urban areas have become the new places of revolt and the three cases explored in this paper leave behind a number of policy implications
Summary
The city has become a defining life space for most of the world’s population with over 50% classified as urban and a further 61% becoming urban by 2025. Insurgent practice is defined here as the process of making claims towards inclusive and substantive citizenship rights and towards achieving the right to the city (Lamarca, 2010) It finds resonance with one of Castells’s (1983) notions of urban social change as a process where new urban meaning is produced as social movements or mobilizations impose a new urban meaning contrary to the institutionalized one and against the interests of the dominant powers. This right entails opportunities for representation, participation and appropriation, and involves meaningful access to decision making channels (Lefebvre, 1968)
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