Crystallizing Contention : A Cumulative Dissertation on Youth, Politics, and Urban Violence in Conakry, Kampala, and Beyond

Title data

Philipps, Joschka:
Crystallizing Contention : A Cumulative Dissertation on Youth, Politics, and Urban Violence in Conakry, Kampala, and Beyond.
Basel : University of Basel , 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5451/unibas-007085256

Official URL:

Abstract in another language

This PhD thesis analyzes specific cases of how urban protest movements arise, how they grow in size and political significance, and how observation, description, and reality of protest movements are entangled. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Conakry (Guinea) and Kampala (Uganda), and also touching upon the England riots in 2011, the author employs comparative and relational methods to ultimately trace a new perspective on urban protests: the so-called crystallization approach. Based on the philosophy of Gilbert Simondon (1924-1989), it suggests seeing protest movements as crystallization processes, emerging from heterogeneous urban contexts and dynamically concretizing into ‘social movements’, ‘demonstrations’, ‘protests’ or ‘riots’ — terms that tend to absorb the diverse relations that gave rise to what they describe. The cumulative thesis comprises five distinct articles, preceded by an integrative synthesis in which the author reflects on his shortcomings during the research process and on why he failed to answer the research questions that he had started out with.

Further data

Item Type:	Book / Monograph
Keywords:	Political protest; youth; sociology
Institutions of the University:	Faculties > Faculty of Cultural Studies Faculties > Faculty of Cultural Studies > Chair Sociology of Africa Faculties > Faculty of Cultural Studies > Chair Sociology of Africa > Chair Sociology of Africa - Univ.-Prof. Dr. Jana Hönke
Result of work at the UBT:	No
DDC Subjects:	300 Social sciences 300 Social sciences > 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology 300 Social sciences > 320 Political science
Date Deposited:	23 Aug 2024 06:48
Last Modified:	23 Aug 2024 06:48
URI:	https://eref.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/90243