Silke Oldenburg
Biographic Data
| ID | 92211 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Silke Oldenburg |
| GIVEN NAMES | Silke |
| FAMILY NAME | Oldenburg |
| SIGNATURE | OLDENBURG S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Basel |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3109-6514 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 22 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Fluid Toxicities: Violent Affective Ecologies in Cartagena, Colombia
Water is at the centre of climate change emergency concerns in coastal cities. It constitutes here a fluid entry point to investigating the socio‐ecological politics of toxicities for residents dwelling with and against contaminated waters in Cartagena, Colombia's urban extensions. We propose the concept of ‘fluid toxicities’ to refer to the wateriness of toxic contamination in amphibious urban spaces marked by histories of harm linked to the cit…
Thinking with the Archipelago: Mangroves, marginalization, and the making of alternative environmental futures in Cartagena, Colombia
This article proposes ‘Thinking with the Archipelago’ as a critical analytical lens to examine racialized urban ecologies and spatial politics in Cartagena, Colombia. Grounded in long-term ethnographic research along the Ciénaga de la Virgen, Cartagena’s largest urban wetland, this study explores how local communities negotiate socio-ecological marginalization amid colonial continuities, green gentrification, and speculative urbanism. Drawing on …
On Laughter, the Grotesque, and the Ability to Pretend: Reframing Uncertainty in Goma, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
This article explores the complex role of laughter, the grotesque, and the practice of pretense in everyday life in Goma, a city in the war-affected Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Goma since 2008, the study examines how residents navigate chronic uncertainty, ongoing violence, and social precarity through humour and performative acts. In a context marked by protracted armed conflict,…
Estoy llenita de agua: Caring for Infrastructural Belonging in Cartagena
Weaving together the stories of women’s efforts to ‘resuscitate’ rubble as building material, Silke Oldenburg and María Buelvas show how gendered labor and care practices in Cartegena have complex effects on women’s bodies, communities and belonging in the city
Navigating the Archipelago City: Everyday experiences and socio-political imaginaries of urban floods in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia
It is difficult to imagine the city of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, the “Pearl of the Caribbean”, without water, as sandy beaches, lush mangrove forests, swampy landscapes and a maze of canals both surround the emblematic historic city centre and shape the expanding neighbourhoods in the so-called urban periphery. Water and the city are so closely intertwined that we introduce Cartagena as an Archipelago City to explore how urban residents navi…
Maisha ni kuvumiliya – patrimonialism, progress and the ambiguities of waiting in Goma, DR Congo
Maisha ni kuvumiliya – ‘Life is patience’ is a very popular catchphrase in Goma, the capital of Eastern Congo’s North Kivu province. Patience takes waiting as a starting point for progress and points to the uncertainties on the horizon. In a world of velocity and mobility, young people, who are so often forced to wait, feel frustrated about being ‘stuck’ or in ‘waithood’. Drawing on ethnographic examples gathered during longitudinal fieldwork car…
Agency, social space and conflict-urbanism in eastern Congo
War, a protracted humanitarian crisis and the omnipresence of an active volcano in eastern Congo's North Kivu province have had a massive impact on the formation of urban social space in Goma. Recent perspectives on urbanity in Africa echo complaints about the ungovernability of mushrooming cities and the appraisal of urban vitality and innovation. Studies that consider and reflect both the agency of the actors and the city as a structured settin…
Uncertain Future(s): Perceptions on Time between the Immediate and the Imagined
In this special issue, we explore the pivotal role that the future as a social perception of time and temporality plays in dealings with uncertainty. There are four linkages between uncertainty and future, as the chapters in this special issue show: Firstly, visions of the future result from current and past interpretations of culturally embedded everyday lives. Secondly, a multitude of co-existing models of time is possible. Thirdly, actors adju…
“I am an Intellectual”. War, Youth and Higher Education in Goma (Eastern Congo)
The purpose of this paper is to explore, at an empirical level and with a processual view, the relationship between higher education, war, and youths’ aspirations in Eastern Congo. Students are a relevant social group and an adequate ethnographic lens to describe moments and processes of self-staging, identity formation and social positionality. Therefore, this article explores how students imagine their life chances and how they aspire to accomp…
The Politics of Love and Intimacy in Goma, Eastern DR Congo: Perspectives on the Market of Intervention as Contact Zone
This paper takes an ethnographic approach to illuminate everyday interactions relating to physical intimacy and emotional support in Goma's 'market of intervention'. I offer insights into the heterogeneity and complexity of gender identities in the context of protracted war and humanitarian intervention. Conceptualised as a contact zone, the market of intervention illustrates processes of encounter and distancing in Goma's urban space. In particu…
Under Familiar Fire: Making Decisions during the 'Kivu Crisis' 2008 in Goma, DR Congo
This paper explores the decision-making processes used by the inhabitants of Goma during the Kivu Crisis in October 2008. The paper's aim is twofold: After providing a short history of the October 2008 events, it seeks in the empirical part to distinguish and clarify the role of rumours and narratives in the setting of violent conflict as well as to analyse their impact on decision-making processes. As the epistemological interest lies more on th…
The Politics of Love and Intimacy in Goma, Eastern DR Congo: Perspectives on the Market of Intervention as Contact Zone
This paper takes an ethnographic approach to illuminate everyday interactions relating to physical intimacy and emotional support in Goma's 'market of intervention'. I offer insights into the heterogeneity and complexity of gender identities in the context of protracted war and humanitarian intervention. Conceptualised as a contact zone, the market of intervention illustrates processes of encounter and distancing in Goma's urban space. In particu…
Agency, social space and conflict-urbanism in eastern Congo
War, a protracted humanitarian crisis and the omnipresence of an active volcano in eastern Congo's North Kivu province have had a massive impact on the formation of urban social space in Goma. Recent perspectives on urbanity in Africa echo complaints about the ungovernability of mushrooming cities and the appraisal of urban vitality and innovation. Studies that consider and reflect both the agency of the actors and the city as a structured settin…
Under Familiar Fire: Making Decisions during the 'Kivu Crisis' 2008 in Goma, DR Congo
This paper explores the decision-making processes used by the inhabitants of Goma during the Kivu Crisis in October 2008. The paper's aim is twofold: After providing a short history of the October 2008 events, it seeks in the empirical part to distinguish and clarify the role of rumours and narratives in the setting of violent conflict as well as to analyse their impact on decision-making processes. As the epistemological interest lies more on th…
Navigating the Archipelago City: Everyday experiences and socio-political imaginaries of urban floods in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia
It is difficult to imagine the city of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, the “Pearl of the Caribbean”, without water, as sandy beaches, lush mangrove forests, swampy landscapes and a maze of canals both surround the emblematic historic city centre and shape the expanding neighbourhoods in the so-called urban periphery. Water and the city are so closely intertwined that we introduce Cartagena as an Archipelago City to explore how urban residents navi…
Maisha ni kuvumiliya – patrimonialism, progress and the ambiguities of waiting in Goma, DR Congo
Maisha ni kuvumiliya – ‘Life is patience’ is a very popular catchphrase in Goma, the capital of Eastern Congo’s North Kivu province. Patience takes waiting as a starting point for progress and points to the uncertainties on the horizon. In a world of velocity and mobility, young people, who are so often forced to wait, feel frustrated about being ‘stuck’ or in ‘waithood’. Drawing on ethnographic examples gathered during longitudinal fieldwork car…
Under Familiar Fire: Making Decisions during the 'Kivu Crisis' 2008 in Goma, DR Congo
This paper explores the decision-making processes used by the inhabitants of Goma during the Kivu Crisis in October 2008. The paper's aim is twofold: After providing a short history of the October 2008 events, it seeks in the empirical part to distinguish and clarify the role of rumours and narratives in the setting of violent conflict as well as to analyse their impact on decision-making processes. As the epistemological interest lies more on th…
The Politics of Love and Intimacy in Goma, Eastern DR Congo: Perspectives on the Market of Intervention as Contact Zone
This paper takes an ethnographic approach to illuminate everyday interactions relating to physical intimacy and emotional support in Goma's 'market of intervention'. I offer insights into the heterogeneity and complexity of gender identities in the context of protracted war and humanitarian intervention. Conceptualised as a contact zone, the market of intervention illustrates processes of encounter and distancing in Goma's urban space. In particu…
“I am an Intellectual”. War, Youth and Higher Education in Goma (Eastern Congo)
The purpose of this paper is to explore, at an empirical level and with a processual view, the relationship between higher education, war, and youths’ aspirations in Eastern Congo. Students are a relevant social group and an adequate ethnographic lens to describe moments and processes of self-staging, identity formation and social positionality. Therefore, this article explores how students imagine their life chances and how they aspire to accomp…
Uncertain Future(s): Perceptions on Time between the Immediate and the Imagined
In this special issue, we explore the pivotal role that the future as a social perception of time and temporality plays in dealings with uncertainty. There are four linkages between uncertainty and future, as the chapters in this special issue show: Firstly, visions of the future result from current and past interpretations of culturally embedded everyday lives. Secondly, a multitude of co-existing models of time is possible. Thirdly, actors adju…
Agency, social space and conflict-urbanism in eastern Congo
War, a protracted humanitarian crisis and the omnipresence of an active volcano in eastern Congo's North Kivu province have had a massive impact on the formation of urban social space in Goma. Recent perspectives on urbanity in Africa echo complaints about the ungovernability of mushrooming cities and the appraisal of urban vitality and innovation. Studies that consider and reflect both the agency of the actors and the city as a structured settin…
Maisha ni kuvumiliya – patrimonialism, progress and the ambiguities of waiting in Goma, DR Congo
Maisha ni kuvumiliya – ‘Life is patience’ is a very popular catchphrase in Goma, the capital of Eastern Congo’s North Kivu province. Patience takes waiting as a starting point for progress and points to the uncertainties on the horizon. In a world of velocity and mobility, young people, who are so often forced to wait, feel frustrated about being ‘stuck’ or in ‘waithood’. Drawing on ethnographic examples gathered during longitudinal fieldwork car…
Navigating the Archipelago City: Everyday experiences and socio-political imaginaries of urban floods in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia
It is difficult to imagine the city of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, the “Pearl of the Caribbean”, without water, as sandy beaches, lush mangrove forests, swampy landscapes and a maze of canals both surround the emblematic historic city centre and shape the expanding neighbourhoods in the so-called urban periphery. Water and the city are so closely intertwined that we introduce Cartagena as an Archipelago City to explore how urban residents navi…
Estoy llenita de agua: Caring for Infrastructural Belonging in Cartagena
Weaving together the stories of women’s efforts to ‘resuscitate’ rubble as building material, Silke Oldenburg and María Buelvas show how gendered labor and care practices in Cartegena have complex effects on women’s bodies, communities and belonging in the city
Thinking with the Archipelago: Mangroves, marginalization, and the making of alternative environmental futures in Cartagena, Colombia
This article proposes ‘Thinking with the Archipelago’ as a critical analytical lens to examine racialized urban ecologies and spatial politics in Cartagena, Colombia. Grounded in long-term ethnographic research along the Ciénaga de la Virgen, Cartagena’s largest urban wetland, this study explores how local communities negotiate socio-ecological marginalization amid colonial continuities, green gentrification, and speculative urbanism. Drawing on …
On Laughter, the Grotesque, and the Ability to Pretend: Reframing Uncertainty in Goma, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
This article explores the complex role of laughter, the grotesque, and the practice of pretense in everyday life in Goma, a city in the war-affected Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Goma since 2008, the study examines how residents navigate chronic uncertainty, ongoing violence, and social precarity through humour and performative acts. In a context marked by protracted armed conflict,…
Fluid Toxicities: Violent Affective Ecologies in Cartagena, Colombia
Water is at the centre of climate change emergency concerns in coastal cities. It constitutes here a fluid entry point to investigating the socio‐ecological politics of toxicities for residents dwelling with and against contaminated waters in Cartagena, Colombia's urban extensions. We propose the concept of ‘fluid toxicities’ to refer to the wateriness of toxic contamination in amphibious urban spaces marked by histories of harm linked to the cit…
Sociology (6 works) · Political science (5 works) · Politics (5 works) · Cambodian History and Society (4 works) · Ethnography (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Aesthetics (3 works) · Everyday life (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Peacebuilding and International Security (3 works)