This article explores the middle classes as cultural practice by focusing on the young professionals, or "yuppies," of Nairobi. Young professionals are particularly interesting to study because they are the population that has reaped the benefits of a historical development of socioeconomic opportunities. They also occupy an interesting position in the context of local preoccupations with being modern or "sophisticated" in Kenya and in terms of the expectations and assumptions of previous generations. The article touches briefly on the history of class analysis in African studies and then, departing from Marx and following a Weberian analysis, shows how three factors are important in analyzing the middle classes and the forging of class identities in a globalizing world: access to education, resulting in salaried occupations; consumption patterns; and modern self-perceptions.Résumé: Cet article explore la classe moyenne en tant que pratique culturelle en mettant l'accent sur les jeunes professionnels, ou "yuppies" de Nairobi. Les jeunes professionnels sont particulièrement intéressants à étudier parce qu'ils appartiennent à la génération qui a récolté les bénéfices du développement historique des opportunités socio-économiques. Ils occupent également une position intéressante dans le contexte des préoccupations locales sur le phénomène de sophistication au Kenya, en comparaison avec les attentes et les questions des générations précédentes. L'article aborde brièvement comment les analyses des classes ont évolué historiquement dans les études africaines; ensuite, en utilisant Marx comme point de départ et en suivant une analyse wébérienne, l'article expose les trois facteurs importants dans l'analyse de la classe moyenne et la fabrication d'identités de classe dans un African Studies Review , Volume 57, Number 1 (April 2014), pp. 93-114 Rachel Spronk is an assistant professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam . Her research focuses primarily on the development of the middle classes in Africa and related transformations in notions of gender and sexuality . Her current research concerns intergenerational shifts in the practices and imagination of intimacy and the notion of modern personhood in middle-class Ghana . 94 African Studies Review monde globalisé: l'accès à l'éducation aboutissant à des professions salariées, les habitudes de consommation, et les perceptions modernes identitaires.
In this paper, I reflect on the notion of 'African men' as it is employed in global health scholarship and disentangle the way the idea is used as a generative concept. I explore how this notion circulates and gets modified, adapted and reproduced by scholars, on the one hand, and by various groups of men in Africa, on the other. I argue that the use of the idea of African men as an a priori category in scholarly imagination and practice presents us with stereotypes that impede much research. I then briefly connect with what has been analysed as the hegemonic discourse on Africa as the paradigm of difference, and the history of local modes of self-presentation as Africans. In Kenya, among both men and women, the use of the phrase African men as a natural category of sexual agents has been used to explain or justify men's multiple sexual relations. Yet if we look more closely at men's experiences, it becomes clear how men are caught up in conflicting discourses of masculinity. I conclude that we need to analyse gender as a performative quality that is both constructed and meaningful.
This paper examines the productive role of secrecy in the nexus of transnational mobility, kinship, and intimate relations among Ghanaian-Dutch and Somali-Dutch in the Netherlands. Whereas secrecy is typically understood as one person concealing knowledge from another, implying the latter’s passivity, we argue that secrecy depends on mutually constitutive interactions. Secrecy is explored as the result of an interaction between those who obscure knowledge in creative ways and those who maintain a not-knowing. The paper analyzes how people negotiate moral expectations regarding sexuality, respect, and loyalty, while also manoeuvring to fulfil their personal aspirations. Especially in kinship relations, when people are bound to each other by moral and social obligations, the management of secrecy often makes people mutually dependent. Secrecy is revealed as skillfully choreographing relations by the ebb and flow of information where kinship, respect, or love and (not-) knowing reinforce another.
Ethnicity is a frequently used measure in research into youth and sexuality in the Netherlands, a country known and admired for its favourable sexual health outcomes. This paper critically examines the production of knowledge about sexuality and ethnicity in the Netherlands. It traces the concept of ethnicity through four research practices (rationales of taking up ethnicity and compiling research populations; determining ethnicity; statistical calculations and making recommendations). It shows how the notion of ethnicity is flexible, slippery and changeable, yet at the same time becomes solidified and naturalized in relation to sexuality. The paper is based on a literature review of youth and sexuality in the Netherlands.
For us, life is about having a fluid disposition. Nairobi is a shot of whisky.' 1 Patrick and I met at a friend's party in 2001. We were leaning over the balcony staring into the Nairobi night while the sounds of the party made up the background noise. He asked what had brought me to Nairobi and we engaged in a discussion about the lifestyles of his generation (he was then aged twenty-eight). His generation, he said, was marked by a spirited approach to life, 'hip and ambitious', a generation he also characterized as 'dangerously nearing Westernization'. He got somewhat agitated and started fulminating about the dominance of 'the West'. Somewhere along the discussion we started talking about female circumcision, and he got very upset. He said:Female circumcision is part of our African culture. You do not know how important it is for women themselves, they are not forced to do it in my community [the Abagusii ethnic group]. While they want to be circumcised, it is criminalized by outsiders, Westerners. Where I come from, the place is infested with NGOs trying to estrange the women.
Although the history of anthropology shows various shifts in the way sexuality has been theorised, studies of the relation between sexuality and bodily sensations have remained limited. In this article I explore the concept of body‐sensorial knowledge to understand the relation between the social significance of sexuality and erotic sensations. I argue that the sensual qualities of sexuality are mediators and shapers of social knowledge that help to understand how causal relations, such as the reconfiguration of culture, gender and sexuality in postcolonial Kenyan society, are registered in people's self‐perceptions.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.