Publication
Title
Humanitarian urbanism in a post-conflict aid town : aid agencies and urbanization in Gulu, Northern Uganda
Author
Abstract
This paper focuses on the urban outcomes of protracted humanitarian intervention in Gulu town, Northern Uganda. Using the concept of humanitarian urbanism, we demonstrate how intensive external donor-aid has shaped urbanization in the capital of Northern Uganda. The starting point for our analysis is the recent process of withdrawal of humanitarian NGOs and the shifts from humanitarian to development interventions. This shift was characterized by a special focus on urban development, coordinated by the Ugandan state while largely donor supported. We argue that this shift, instead of introducing an urban involvement of aid agencies in Gulu town, actually reveals a protracted continuum of aid agencies interventions in Gulus urbanity. The current withdrawal of humanitarian organizations in fact makes the long-term effects of these interventions especially visible. As such, it offers an interesting starting point to investigate processes of humanitarian urbanism and its profound impacts on the urban material, socio-economic and political landscapes. This paper demonstrates how aid agencies, since the armed conflict in Northern Uganda, have been key actors in shaping different dimensions of urban governance. Three case-studies are presented, which variously focus upon the urban educational sector, Gulus physical urban planning, and Gulus cultural institution. They reveal how todays reconfigurations of the urban aid-landscape have redrawn the complex relations between urban inhabitants, aid agencies, and the Ugandan state.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Journal of eastern African studies. - Abingdon
Publication
Abingdon : 2018
ISSN
1753-1055
1753-1063 [online]
DOI
10.1080/17531055.2018.1456034
Volume/pages
12 :2 (2018) , p. 348-366
ISI
000430484400009
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 03.05.2018
Last edited 09.10.2023
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