This PhD project looks at the nexus of violence, conflict, and urban protest in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The spectacular phenomenon of urban protest forms the starting point of the study. It analyses this phenomenon from a spatial, historical, and socio-political perspective. The goal of the research is to understand urban protest actors’ experiences and discourses on the interrelating dynamics of violence and armed conflict through a case study. In light of the blurred dichotomy between power and resistance, this project tries to grasp how urban protest is understood and performed by a wide array of actors in urban eastern DRC. It does so by engaging with youth at the geographical and social margins of the city. Drawing upon long-term ethnographic stays in the field, the aim is to offer a subjectivist understanding of how urban protest takes form in the conflict-ridden city of Goma.
- Funding: BOF
- Time: 2019-2023
- People involved: Sam Kniknie (researcher), Karen Büscher (supervisor)