P Lockwood
Biographic Data
| ID | 40660 |
|---|---|
| NAME | P Lockwood |
| GIVEN NAMES | P |
| FAMILY NAME | Lockwood |
| SIGNATURE | LOCKWOOD P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Manchester |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4326-8501 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 28 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Peasants to Paupers
On the northern periphery of Nairobi, in southern Kiambu County, the city's expansion into a landscape of poor smallholders is bringing new opportunities, dilemmas, and conflicts. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, Peter Lockwood examines how Kiambu's 'workers with patches of land' struggle to sustain their households as the skyrocketing price of land ratchets up gendered and generational tensions within families. The sale of ancestral …
Timing property
Across the globe, the acquisition and exploitation of property has become a defining feature of capitalism. A central pillar of middle-class aspiration and ideology, property carries the promise of security, propelling its pursuit even as prices rise disproportionally to wages. This drive to own occurs amid highly unequal property markets and contributes to their destabilization—the market volatility produced by financialization and speculation. …
Faith in paper?
On the urbanizing outskirts of Nairobi, where public land registries are open to manipulation by private interests and land prices are skyrocketing, this article explores how middle-class aspirations for property ownership are confounded by experiences of fraud and deception. In a context where ownership documents are duplicated and land is double-sold, buyers and landowners desperately try to resolve these tensions, pursuing documentary evidence…
Alienating “Dead Capital,” Eating Moral Principle
North of Nairobi, the city’s sprawl enters a landscape of impoverished smallholders, causing land prices to skyrocket. Kenya’s economic commentators urge these part-time proletarians to sell their land—deemed unproductive “dead capital”—as an antidote for rural poverty. Senior men from the region insist this ancestral land cannot be sold, because retaining it while working for wages constitutes the cornerstone of masculine personhood. However, in…
Contextualizing Kenyatta
In recent attempts to decolonize the anthropological curriculum, anthropologists have returned to Jomo Kenyatta's Facing Mount Kenya (1938). This article contextualizes Kenyatta's book and his political person within the Kenyan colonial period and contemporary struggles for land and freedom. It warns anthropologists against romanticizing Kenyatta by grasping his fundamental conservatism in relation to the politics of his day and his oligarchic go…
Land makes me feel so secure
There Is No Such Thing as an African Value of Dependence & What Is the Matter with Values
In "Anthropology Bright and Dark," Joel Robbins encourages anthropologists to identify "visions of the good" and to explore whether they enable or inhibit "human flourishing." Ethnographic work on dependence in southern Africa informs his approach and provides a key example of a "model of the good life" in which patron-client relations are seen as ideal social arrangements. But by locating visions of the good in culture, Robbins's approach obscur…
Nairobi Becoming
Echoing the edgy, disjunctive, ever-emergent city of Nairobi that it explores, Nairobi Becoming: Security, Uncertainty, Contingency strives to be several things-in-the-making. It is a historically and anthropologically minded examination of a shifting cityscape, an experimental, collaborative exercise in curated juxtaposition and assemblage, and an interdisciplinary, subjunctive urban ethnography. It brings together curated interventions by twent…
We Are All Hypocrites Here
Hustler Populism, Anti-Jubilee Backlash And Economic Injustice In Kenya’s 2022 Elections
Deputy President William Ruto’s victorious presidential campaign in Kenya’s 2022 elections saw him champion the plight of the ‘hustlers’, young informal economy workers on low, piecemeal incomes. Reconfiguring political identities around notions of economic hardship and struggle, Ruto’s campaign appeared emblematic of what scholars have recently identified as a turn towards ‘populism’ in Africa, transmuting ethno-nationalist identities into class…
He who relies on relatives and friends die poor
Africanist anthropology has tended to paint social relations on the continent in a positive light, giving the impression that a pro-social relationality will provide the poor with economic assistance in moments of need. This article troubles these accounts by turning to Kenya, where a history of socioeconomic stratification has created a landscape of class closure. Rather than generously give, upwardly mobile families seek to distance themselves …
Hustlers vs dynasties
During Kenya's 2022 presidential race, William Samoei Ruto, the country's ex-Deputy President, successfully leveraged his 'Hustler Nation' campaign to clinch victory. This campaign played on the struggles of the informal economy labourers, pledging a 'hustler' government dedicated to their cause. However, Ruto's campaign also utilized rhetoric against the deeply rooted 'dynasties' of Kenya's patrimonial capitalism, exploiting widespread dissatisf…
Ironies of accomplishment
Exploring the 'hollow' character of middle-class status in contemporary Kenya, this article shows how upwardly mobile young Kenyans struggle to cope with the expectations for distribution that their displays of achievement create. Focusing on the urbanizing peripheries of Nairobi, it shows how accusations of envy (wivu) made about poorer friends and relatives reflect their anxieties about failing to act as the providers they are expected to be. A…
Impatient Accumulation, Immediate Consumption
Contemporary anthropological accounts of economic uncertainty often use the concept of hope as a means of recovering human agency in relation to broader socio-economic structures. At times, however, the emphasis anthropologists place on hope can appear too generically existential. This article argues for a more specific emphasis on the object of hope—an appreciation of more concrete desires held by marginal persons, orienting their economic activ…
Economic Anthropology
Anthropology has a long and complicated history in Africa, and its study of economic life is no exception. In the early days of the discipline, in the 1930s and 1940s, anthropologists like Audrey Richards, Meyer Fortes, and E. E. Evans-Pritchard all departed for Africa to conduct fieldwork. In general, early British social anthropology was committed to holistic studies of small-scale societies, and thus what counted as “economic anthropology” was…
Before there is power, there is the country
This paper provides an ethnographic perspective on the street-level deliberations of Kenya's opposition supporters between the 2013 and 2017 elections, arguing that rather than appeals to ethnicity what defines its discourse are broader, inclusive notions of political membership. A civic nationalism is enunciated by opposition supporters that congeals support between multiple ethnic groups through its emphasis on universal values - democracy, due…
Statecraft, citizenship and the middle class in Mozambique
The Buffalo and the Squirrel
In the 2017 race for Kiambu County's governor seat, debates concerning the morality of incumbent governor William Kabogo played a distinctive role in his defeat at the hands of populist challenger Ferdinand Waititu. Shortly before the April nominations for Jubilee Party gubernatorial candidate, rumours circulated that Kabogo had publicly insulted the women of Kiambu at a campaign meeting. Kabogo ultimately gained a reputation for arrogant conduct…
He who relies on relatives and friends die poor
Africanist anthropology has tended to paint social relations on the continent in a positive light, giving the impression that a pro-social relationality will provide the poor with economic assistance in moments of need. This article troubles these accounts by turning to Kenya, where a history of socioeconomic stratification has created a landscape of class closure. Rather than generously give, upwardly mobile families seek to distance themselves …
Hustler Populism, Anti-Jubilee Backlash And Economic Injustice In Kenya’s 2022 Elections
Deputy President William Ruto’s victorious presidential campaign in Kenya’s 2022 elections saw him champion the plight of the ‘hustlers’, young informal economy workers on low, piecemeal incomes. Reconfiguring political identities around notions of economic hardship and struggle, Ruto’s campaign appeared emblematic of what scholars have recently identified as a turn towards ‘populism’ in Africa, transmuting ethno-nationalist identities into class…
The Buffalo and the Squirrel
In the 2017 race for Kiambu County's governor seat, debates concerning the morality of incumbent governor William Kabogo played a distinctive role in his defeat at the hands of populist challenger Ferdinand Waititu. Shortly before the April nominations for Jubilee Party gubernatorial candidate, rumours circulated that Kabogo had publicly insulted the women of Kiambu at a campaign meeting. Kabogo ultimately gained a reputation for arrogant conduct…
Ironies of accomplishment
Exploring the 'hollow' character of middle-class status in contemporary Kenya, this article shows how upwardly mobile young Kenyans struggle to cope with the expectations for distribution that their displays of achievement create. Focusing on the urbanizing peripheries of Nairobi, it shows how accusations of envy (wivu) made about poorer friends and relatives reflect their anxieties about failing to act as the providers they are expected to be. A…
Land makes me feel so secure
Hustlers vs dynasties
During Kenya's 2022 presidential race, William Samoei Ruto, the country's ex-Deputy President, successfully leveraged his 'Hustler Nation' campaign to clinch victory. This campaign played on the struggles of the informal economy labourers, pledging a 'hustler' government dedicated to their cause. However, Ruto's campaign also utilized rhetoric against the deeply rooted 'dynasties' of Kenya's patrimonial capitalism, exploiting widespread dissatisf…
Before there is power, there is the country
This paper provides an ethnographic perspective on the street-level deliberations of Kenya's opposition supporters between the 2013 and 2017 elections, arguing that rather than appeals to ethnicity what defines its discourse are broader, inclusive notions of political membership. A civic nationalism is enunciated by opposition supporters that congeals support between multiple ethnic groups through its emphasis on universal values - democracy, due…
Before there is power, there is the country
This paper provides an ethnographic perspective on the street-level deliberations of Kenya's opposition supporters between the 2013 and 2017 elections, arguing that rather than appeals to ethnicity what defines its discourse are broader, inclusive notions of political membership. A civic nationalism is enunciated by opposition supporters that congeals support between multiple ethnic groups through its emphasis on universal values - democracy, due…
Statecraft, citizenship and the middle class in Mozambique
The Buffalo and the Squirrel
In the 2017 race for Kiambu County's governor seat, debates concerning the morality of incumbent governor William Kabogo played a distinctive role in his defeat at the hands of populist challenger Ferdinand Waititu. Shortly before the April nominations for Jubilee Party gubernatorial candidate, rumours circulated that Kabogo had publicly insulted the women of Kiambu at a campaign meeting. Kabogo ultimately gained a reputation for arrogant conduct…
Impatient Accumulation, Immediate Consumption
Contemporary anthropological accounts of economic uncertainty often use the concept of hope as a means of recovering human agency in relation to broader socio-economic structures. At times, however, the emphasis anthropologists place on hope can appear too generically existential. This article argues for a more specific emphasis on the object of hope—an appreciation of more concrete desires held by marginal persons, orienting their economic activ…
Economic Anthropology
Anthropology has a long and complicated history in Africa, and its study of economic life is no exception. In the early days of the discipline, in the 1930s and 1940s, anthropologists like Audrey Richards, Meyer Fortes, and E. E. Evans-Pritchard all departed for Africa to conduct fieldwork. In general, early British social anthropology was committed to holistic studies of small-scale societies, and thus what counted as “economic anthropology” was…
Hustler Populism, Anti-Jubilee Backlash And Economic Injustice In Kenya’s 2022 Elections
Deputy President William Ruto’s victorious presidential campaign in Kenya’s 2022 elections saw him champion the plight of the ‘hustlers’, young informal economy workers on low, piecemeal incomes. Reconfiguring political identities around notions of economic hardship and struggle, Ruto’s campaign appeared emblematic of what scholars have recently identified as a turn towards ‘populism’ in Africa, transmuting ethno-nationalist identities into class…
He who relies on relatives and friends die poor
Africanist anthropology has tended to paint social relations on the continent in a positive light, giving the impression that a pro-social relationality will provide the poor with economic assistance in moments of need. This article troubles these accounts by turning to Kenya, where a history of socioeconomic stratification has created a landscape of class closure. Rather than generously give, upwardly mobile families seek to distance themselves …
Hustlers vs dynasties
During Kenya's 2022 presidential race, William Samoei Ruto, the country's ex-Deputy President, successfully leveraged his 'Hustler Nation' campaign to clinch victory. This campaign played on the struggles of the informal economy labourers, pledging a 'hustler' government dedicated to their cause. However, Ruto's campaign also utilized rhetoric against the deeply rooted 'dynasties' of Kenya's patrimonial capitalism, exploiting widespread dissatisf…
Ironies of accomplishment
Exploring the 'hollow' character of middle-class status in contemporary Kenya, this article shows how upwardly mobile young Kenyans struggle to cope with the expectations for distribution that their displays of achievement create. Focusing on the urbanizing peripheries of Nairobi, it shows how accusations of envy (wivu) made about poorer friends and relatives reflect their anxieties about failing to act as the providers they are expected to be. A…
Nairobi Becoming
Echoing the edgy, disjunctive, ever-emergent city of Nairobi that it explores, Nairobi Becoming: Security, Uncertainty, Contingency strives to be several things-in-the-making. It is a historically and anthropologically minded examination of a shifting cityscape, an experimental, collaborative exercise in curated juxtaposition and assemblage, and an interdisciplinary, subjunctive urban ethnography. It brings together curated interventions by twent…
We Are All Hypocrites Here
Land makes me feel so secure
There Is No Such Thing as an African Value of Dependence & What Is the Matter with Values
In "Anthropology Bright and Dark," Joel Robbins encourages anthropologists to identify "visions of the good" and to explore whether they enable or inhibit "human flourishing." Ethnographic work on dependence in southern Africa informs his approach and provides a key example of a "model of the good life" in which patron-client relations are seen as ideal social arrangements. But by locating visions of the good in culture, Robbins's approach obscur…
Peasants to Paupers
On the northern periphery of Nairobi, in southern Kiambu County, the city's expansion into a landscape of poor smallholders is bringing new opportunities, dilemmas, and conflicts. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, Peter Lockwood examines how Kiambu's 'workers with patches of land' struggle to sustain their households as the skyrocketing price of land ratchets up gendered and generational tensions within families. The sale of ancestral …
Timing property
Across the globe, the acquisition and exploitation of property has become a defining feature of capitalism. A central pillar of middle-class aspiration and ideology, property carries the promise of security, propelling its pursuit even as prices rise disproportionally to wages. This drive to own occurs amid highly unequal property markets and contributes to their destabilization—the market volatility produced by financialization and speculation. …
Faith in paper?
On the urbanizing outskirts of Nairobi, where public land registries are open to manipulation by private interests and land prices are skyrocketing, this article explores how middle-class aspirations for property ownership are confounded by experiences of fraud and deception. In a context where ownership documents are duplicated and land is double-sold, buyers and landowners desperately try to resolve these tensions, pursuing documentary evidence…
Alienating “Dead Capital,” Eating Moral Principle
North of Nairobi, the city’s sprawl enters a landscape of impoverished smallholders, causing land prices to skyrocket. Kenya’s economic commentators urge these part-time proletarians to sell their land—deemed unproductive “dead capital”—as an antidote for rural poverty. Senior men from the region insist this ancestral land cannot be sold, because retaining it while working for wages constitutes the cornerstone of masculine personhood. However, in…
Contextualizing Kenyatta
In recent attempts to decolonize the anthropological curriculum, anthropologists have returned to Jomo Kenyatta's Facing Mount Kenya (1938). This article contextualizes Kenyatta's book and his political person within the Kenyan colonial period and contemporary struggles for land and freedom. It warns anthropologists against romanticizing Kenyatta by grasping his fundamental conservatism in relation to the politics of his day and his oligarchic go…
Political science (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (8 works) · Politics (7 works) · Political economy (6 works) · African history and culture studies (5 works) · Law (5 works) · African studies and sociopolitical issues (4 works) · Ethnography (4 works)