Comparing technology cultures in urban DR Congo (1960-present): Kinshasa, Kikwit and Lubumbashi.

The project aims at establishing a team of researchers who study the ways in which technological infrastructures have been co-producing the post-colonial society in three cities in the Democratic Republic in Congo (1960-present), Kinshasa, Kikwit and Lubumbashi. The team (PI, 2 PhD students, 2 post-docs and 2 senior scholars) will carry out ethnographic case studies in the domains of communication (Kinshasa), health (Kikwit) and energy (Lubumbashi) in order to understand (a) how local and global politics have been determining material forms of technology and technology use in urban Africa since political independence until now, (b) how technological infrastructures shape experiences of the "urban" in Africa, (c) the emergence of new kinds of expertise and authority that derive from technology usage and how these compete with other forms of power, knowledge and influence thriving in urban Africa, and, finally, (d) how technologies influence movements of ideas, people, commodities and money in/towards/from the African city. The program has a theoretical and an empirical dimension. The team will be able to contribute to theories of technological cultures in non-Western societies by introducing new concepts and theoretical claims. Based on participant observation, interviews and archival research in three Congolese cities, the project will also significantly contribute to Congo-studies.

Keywords:technology cultures, urban DR Congo, Kinshasa, Kikwit, Lubumbashi

Disciplines:Anthropology