Abstract

Most African countries have seen a significant growth of cities in the last decades. Political systems rely, however, frequently on the networks of societies with a rural majority. This project examines how urbanization influences existing political systems using Kenya as a case study. Kenya is particularly suitable because it is a formal democracy with free elections. However, the parties do not have a programmatic foundation - such as liberal or conservative - but are based, by and large, on ethnic-regional affiliations. With increasing migration into cities, the existing political system could come under pressure as ethnic-regional affiliations weaken. This leaves many open questions on the relationship between growing cities and political processes: will there be adaptations of the political system towards new urban needs? What crucial roles do new urban middle-income groups who are no longer embedded into regional ethnic networks play? How do such urban middle-income groups position themselves, and do they side with the urban poor or oppose them? What are the indicators of such a change? And about which periods are we talking – years or decades?

Dr. Florian Stoll (Leipzig University) is a cultural sociologist with research experience in the Global South (fieldwork in Kenya, Ghana & Brazil) and the Global North (mainly Germany & UK). His main interests are in the ways of life of (middle-class-) milieus and inequalities in the Global South. His other fields of expertise are in cultural sociology and the research into different types of work. He works with Prof. Marian Burchardt in the research project “Fluctuation in industrializing developing countries in West Africa (Ghana): New dynamics of employment biographies“.