Technology and the postcolonial city: anthropological explorations of infrastructures. Mobilities and urbanity in postcolonial Kinshasa (1960-present)

The program aims at establishing a team of researchers who study the ways in which technological infrastructures have been co-producing the postcolonial society in Kinshasa, capital city of the Democratic Republic in Congo (1960-present). In order to understand

1. how local and global politics have been determining material forms of technology and technology use in urban Africa since political independence until now
2. how technological infrastructures shape experiences of the African urban life world
3. 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
4. how technologies influence movements of ideas, people, commodities and money in/towards/from the African city

The team will carry out ethnographic case studies in Kinshasa in the domains of communication, health and energy. This is the first comprehensive study of the dialectics between technology, society and culture in an African urban context. The program has a theoretical and an empirical dimension. The team aims at contributing 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 Kinshasa, the team will also contribute to the growing scholarship on DR Congo.