Digital Spaces and Democratisation in Rural Africa

Participation, Mobilisation, and Laying Claim to Resources

Datos Bibliográficos

ID20148618
AutoresLaban Kithinji Kinyua (Sophia University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2023
Volumen2023
Número104
Páginas1-13
Fecha de publicación2023-12-31
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of African Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0065-4140 • E-ISSN: 1884-5533
EditorialJapan Association for African Studies (PUBLISHER • JP)
DOI10.11619/africa.2023.104_1
OpenAlexW4405898785
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas18

The success of mobile phone technology has transformed communication and financial inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa and permeated politics, giving rise to “digital democracy” (Nyabola, 2019). As a tool for mobilisation with regard to vote-seeking, mobile technology is reinventing mechanisms through which, especially, rural populations fall victim to manipulation by the political elite. Existing scholarly explanations of the emerging trends have often assumed top-down perspectives that praise or reprimand the political elite as manipulative “philanthropists”, consequently obscuring the various mechanisms applied by the grassroots communities as agents of political and social change. As the easy accessibility of the Internet has been redefining the nature of state-citizen relationships, the role of ordinary citizens in the political mobilisation of resources, votes, and political discourse has been amplified. This paper gives an in-depth analysis of contemporary grassroots populations in rural Africa and their assertion of their presence in political participation, focusing on the opportunities they create from digital platforms to capitalise on inclusion in political discourse and the development agenda. Using ethnographic data, this paper highlights digital platforms as crucial in reviving the old forms of interpersonal networks of resource mobilisation among friends and families and claims that the youth use digital platforms (networks of globalisation) to contest and claim political rights (resources) from elected officials in both local and national governments

Business · Democracy · Democratization · Development economics · Economic system · Economics · Political science · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · ICT Impact and Policies · ICT in Developing Communities · Law