The Making of Meaning

Churches, Development Projects and Violence in Eastern Uganda

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3932802
AutoresBen Jone (0000-0003-3168-0726, University of East Anglia, autor correspondente), Ben Jones (0000-0003-2134-8631, University of East Anglia, School of International Development, University of East Anglia NorwichNR4 7TJUnited Kingdom)
Ano2013
Volume43
Fascículo1
Páginas74-95
Data de publicação2013-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Religion in Africa (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0022-4200 • E-ISSN: 1570-0666
EditoraWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/15700666-12341245
OpenAlexW2092088091
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas6
Referências citadas18

Churches and development projects are a shared feature of the landscape of much of rural Africa. In this article I look at these two very different sorts of institution in a village in the Teso region of eastern Uganda, exploring the ways in which people do, or do not, make meaning through their participation in churches and development projects. In this context recently-formed Pentecostal churches have become a significant part of the local landscape, while the community structures built up by NGOs struggle to keep going once the funding ends. In explaining this difference I make an argument about how institutions are made sense of by people living in a particular place. The Teso region experienced a violent insurgency in the late 1980s and early 1990s and the idea of becoming born again has had particular resonance against this history. By contrast the work of NGOs is at a distance from what matters to people. This is evidenced not only in the rusted road signs that mark the failure of past projects, or in the new aluminium-roofed village churches, but also in the way people talk about churches and NGOs. Discussions about NGOs were dry and matter-of-fact, whereas conversations on new churches were rich and wide-ranging linking to other aspects of village life. It can be argued that development projects and Pentecostal churches are interpreted differently, and this differential explains the durability of churches and the brief after-lives of development interventions

Archaeology · Argument (complex analysis · Context (archaeology · Economic growth · Geography · Institution · Insurgency · Meaning (existential · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Christian Theology and Mission · Gender Studies · Law · Religion, Society, and Development · Tourism, Volunteerism, and Development