Book by Florence Brisset-Foucault
Ohio University Press, 2019
For the first decade of the twenty-first century, every weekend, people throughout Uganda converg... more For the first decade of the twenty-first century, every weekend, people throughout Uganda converged to participate in ebimeeza, open debates that invited common citizens to share their political and social views. These debates, also called “People’s Parliaments,” were broadcast live on private radio stations until the government banned them in 2009. In Talkative Polity, Florence Brisset-Foucault offers the first major study of ebimeeza, which complicate our understandings of political speech in restrictive contexts and force us to move away from the simplistic binary of an authoritarian state and a liberal civil society.
Brisset-Foucault conducted extensive fieldwork on the ebimeeza. The resulting ethnography invigorates the study of political domination and documents a short-lived but highly original sphere of political expression. Brisset-Foucault thus does justice to the richness and depth of Uganda’s complex political and radio culture as well as to the story of ambitious young people who didn’t want to behave the way the state expected them to. Positioned at the intersection of media studies and political science, Talkative Polity will help us all rethink the way in which public life works.
Edited special issues by Florence Brisset-Foucault
« Parlementaires debout » de Kinshasa, « People’s Parlia- ments » de Nairobi et d’Eldoret au Keny... more « Parlementaires debout » de Kinshasa, « People’s Parlia- ments » de Nairobi et d’Eldoret au Kenya, « agoras », « parlements » et autres « congrès » patriotiques en Côte d’Ivoire, « fada » de Niamey, « grins » de Bamako, Abidjan et Ouagadougou. Un peu partout en Afrique fleurissent, dans la rue, des instances ouvertes de débat et de discussion, des lieux de rassemblement et de prise de parole.
Loin de toute vision normative, ce dossier tente d’éclairer ces questions par une approche ethnographique des espaces de discussion de rue et de ceux qui les animent. Il entend proposer un autre éclairage sur les problématiques de la citoyenneté en Afrique et engager une réflexion comparatiste sur les fondations sociologiques, historiques et imaginaires de l’espace public au Sud comme au Nord du Sahara. Il ne s’agit point, dans une démarche évaluative, de confronter un idéaltype à des situations particulières mais bien plutôt de réfléchir à la généalogie des pratiques, des institutions et des imaginaires qui, dans chaque société, ont pu conduire à telle ou telle conception de la citoyenneté et de la discussion publique. Nous partons de l’idée que l’analyse des pratiques quotidiennes ou cérémonielles d’assemblée et de sociabilité nous donnent des indications précieuses sur les représentations, les conceptions et les débats locaux autour du bon gouvernement, des fondements de la citoyenneté et de la civilité. Les modes concrets d’organisation de ces assemblées, des tours de parole, de la disposition spatiale de l’assistance, influencent la forme et le contenu des discours. Notre hypothèse est qu’ils sont aussi révélateurs des rapports de pouvoir et des dynamiques d’inclusion et d’exclusion sociopolitiques sous-jacents à des modèles de citoyenneté concurrents au sein d’une société donnée.
Papers by Florence Brisset-Foucault
Participations, 2021
Lorsqu’elles prennent le pouvoir en Ouganda en 1986, les nouvelles elites politiques du Mouvement... more Lorsqu’elles prennent le pouvoir en Ouganda en 1986, les nouvelles elites politiques du Mouvement de resistance nationale (NRM) promeuvent un modele de citoyennete refondee au nom duquel les citoyen·nes doivent prendre en charge leur securite. Cet article reconstitue l’epaisseur sociale et historique des conceptions du civisme et de l’appartenance qui s’expriment a travers la participation a l’ordre en articulant plusieurs echelles : transnationale, nationale, regionale et locale. Si ces dispositifs ont ete tres critiques du fait de la violence dont ils sont la source, ils peuvent aussi etre le support de la production de communautes morales. Loin d’etre antagoniques, les conceptions de l’ordre et de la citoyennete exprimees et produites par le bas et par le haut a travers la participation a l’ordre se rejoignent dans l’elaboration d’un ideal du village comme berceau de la production de personnes civiques.
We are at Club Obligatto, a large pub in the capital city of Uganda, attending an ekimeeza (‘roun... more We are at Club Obligatto, a large pub in the capital city of Uganda, attending an ekimeeza (‘round table ’ in Luganda), a political debate open to all and broadcast live on radio. Today’s topic is the attempt, by several opposition political parties, to create a common platform to beat President Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) in the elections of 2011; one of them, the Democratic Party (DP), has refused, nevertheless, to be part of the cooperation. Seated casually in the middle of the crowd is the chairman, who moderates the discussion and calls the speakers to the microphone: Chairman: Ladies and Gentlemen, the next speaker is Mr A. S. (happy shouts, laughter). Please come here and give us your contribution (mixed acclaim and derision). A.S.: You are talking about bringing parties together.... A cooperation. Mr Chairman... a cooperation is very, very good. Even when a rat is fearing to cooperate with a cat (laughter). Because that cooperation can lead either one to gr...
2008-2009 fut un bon cru en termes de « sagas », pour reprendre les mots des journalistes ouganda... more 2008-2009 fut un bon cru en termes de « sagas », pour reprendre les mots des journalistes ougandais. L’annee s’est deroulee au rythme d’affaires de corruption, de mœurs et de trahison politique qui se croisent et s’alimentent. Affaires sur lesquelles journalistes, opposants de tous bords et membres du gouvernement ou du parti au pouvoir rebondissent, a la poursuite de leur propre agenda. Le lancement precoce de la campagne electorale, en vue des elections presidentielles et parlementaires de ...
Une approche combinant ethnographie, sociologie et histoire des phenomenes de discussion et de pr... more Une approche combinant ethnographie, sociologie et histoire des phenomenes de discussion et de prise de parole permet de mieux comprendre les formes de la citoyennete, les registres de la critique et, au final, l'exercice du pouvoir. En prenant l'exemple de discussions en assemblee diffusees en direct a la radio en Ouganda, les ebimeeza, cette these se veut une opportunite de reposer la question de «l'espace public» en la confrontant a une demarche de sociologie historique du politique et en posant la question des modalites de son transfert dans un cadre extra-europeen. Prendre l'Ouganda comme cadre de cette etude s'avere particulierement heuristique du fait de la nature specifique du regime du Mouvement de resistance nationale (NRM) en place depuis 1986. A travers une serie de « compromis hegemoniques » avec differentes forces politiques, les elites du regime ont mis en place un systeme politique original, la « democratie du Mouvement » caracterise par la diminu...
Dans la region des Rwenzori, en Ouganda, la radio participe de la « bureaucratisation du monde ».... more Dans la region des Rwenzori, en Ouganda, la radio participe de la « bureaucratisation du monde ». En encourageant la creation de « forums d’auditeurs », elle met en scene des technocrates proceduriers et des citoyens vigilants quant a leurs services publics. Des formes anciennes de leadership reposant sur le patronage et l’endossement d’une mission pedagogique d’edifi cation des masses s’y renouvellent a l’aune de l’imaginaire neoliberal. Ces emissions reinsuffl ent du sens a l’Etat et le remettent au centre du developpement. Mais dans la cite radiophonique, ses bienfaits sont reserves aux « citoyens soucieux », qui rejettent l’idee que l’intervention de l’Etat est un droit, et qui demontrent leur bienseance grâce aux atours de la bureaucratie. Pour eux, les forums radiophoniques s’inserent dans des reves bien particuliers de modernite et de renaissance morale, faisant de la bureaucratie le vecteur d’une ambition patriotique de civilisation, d’egalite et de standardisation.
This paper analyzes the biographies of a group of relatively disenfranchised young men who are in... more This paper analyzes the biographies of a group of relatively disenfranchised young men who are intensive participants in interactive talk shows in Masaka and Fort Portal. These people call in during radio talk shows with their mobile phones to give their opinion on the topic of the day or address the political leaders invited in the studio, sometimes several times per day. These practices are closely articulated to local networks of political/electoral mobilisation but also elite or aspiring elite sociability arenas and practices. Through their participation in radio shows, these young men aspire to enter a political career, to build their reputations and be recognised as intellectuals and potential leaders. The paper looks at how the use of mobile phones and radio is intertwined with and affects local networks of political mentoring (a form of intellectual patronage), elite sociability and electoral mobilisation, and interrogates the way these 'serial callers' picture their...
Together, radio and mobile phones have been the object of many political expectations held by dev... more Together, radio and mobile phones have been the object of many political expectations held by development actors in Africa. Stating that they enable ‘participation’ is, however, not enough to understand what is at stake in a given context. It is necessary to describe exactly the kind of participation taking place. Despite development projects inceptors’ intentions, the way people use ICT (information and communication technologies) objects sometimes leads to a rerouting of their political meaning. This article deciphers these sideway uses and what they imply in the Ugandan context. Based on the example of ‘serial callers’ (people who intensively call in during radio talk shows), it demonstrates that ICT objects become the site of the elaboration of particular ways of conceiving one’s roles, status and duties in the polity, as an ‘educator’ or a ‘representative’, blurring established distinctions between political representation and participation, and offers a nuanced picture of the ...
For the first decade of the twenty-first century, every weekend, people throughout Uganda converg... more For the first decade of the twenty-first century, every weekend, people throughout Uganda converged to participate in ebimeeza, open debates that invited common citizens to share their political and social views. These debates, also called “People’s Parliaments,” were broadcast live on private radio stations until the government banned them in 2009. In Talkative Polity, Florence Brisset-Foucault offers the first major study of ebimeeza, which complicate our understandings of political speech in restrictive contexts and force us to move away from the simplistic binary of an authoritarian state and a liberal civil society. Brisset-Foucault conducted extensive fieldwork on the ebimeeza. The resulting ethnography invigorates the study of political domination and documents a short-lived but highly original sphere of political expression. Brisset-Foucault thus does justice to the richness and depth of Uganda’s complex political and radio culture as well as to the story of ambitious young people who didn’t want to behave the way the state expected them to. Positioned at the intersection of media studies and political science, Talkative Polity will help us all rethink the way in which public life works.
Cahiers d'études africaines
Ce beau livre collectif, au-dela du plaisir qu’il procure via la decouverte d’une quinzaine d’etu... more Ce beau livre collectif, au-dela du plaisir qu’il procure via la decouverte d’une quinzaine d’etudes de cas minutieusement documentees et couvrant une tres large periode (de la fin du XIXe au debut du XXIe siecle), represente une avancee epistemologique et methodologique bienvenue au regard des travaux existants sur les medias en Afrique. Il est d’abord un antidote contre une approche tres courante de la presse sur le continent comme « barometre de la democratie », qui evalue les medias selon...
L Uomo Societa Tradizione Sviluppo, 2012
Politique Africaine, 2012
Participations, 2021
Lorsqu’elles prennent le pouvoir en Ouganda en 1986, les nouvelles élites politiques du Mouvement... more Lorsqu’elles prennent le pouvoir en Ouganda en 1986, les nouvelles élites politiques du Mouvement de résistance nationale (NRM) promeuvent un modèle de citoyenneté refondée au nom duquel les citoyen·nes doivent prendre en charge leur sécurité. Cet article reconstitue l’épaisseur sociale et historique des conceptions du civisme et de l’appartenance qui s’expriment à travers la participation à l’ordre en articulant plusieurs échelles : transnationale, nationale, régionale et locale. Si ces dispositifs ont été très critiqués du fait de la violence dont ils sont la source, ils peuvent aussi être le support de la production de communautés morales. Loin d’être antagoniques, les conceptions de l’ordre et de la citoyenneté exprimées et produites par le bas et par le haut à travers la participation à l’ordre se rejoignent dans l’élaboration d’un idéal du village comme berceau de la production de personnes civiques.
Democratizing the gun. The composite imagination of a coercive citizenship in Uganda
When they took power in 1986, the new political elites of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) promoted a renewed model of citizenship in the name of which citizens had to take charge of their own security. This article reexamines the social and historical depth of the conceptions of citizenship and belonging that are expressed through practices of participation in law and order and their political promotion by connecting several scales : transnational, national, regional, and local. Because they have been the source of much brutality, these practices have been criticized. However, they can also support the production of moral communities. Far from being antagonistic, the conceptions of order and citizenship as expressed and produced from below and from above through participation in law and order concur in outlining an ideal of the village as the cradle of the production of civic persons.
In Uganda, since the end of the 1970s, leaders at the village level have produced identity papers... more In Uganda, since the end of the 1970s, leaders at the village level have produced identity papers that aim at ensuring that inter-knowledge overcomes the borders of physical social networks. The production of these papers is based on the moral assessment of one's character, not biometrics, in a world of increasing movement and anonymity. But importantly, the chapter demonstrates that this ideal of the village as a moral homeland is (also) a product of the central State. It has been produced both from below and from above, by successive and antagonistic postcolonial regimes. In the villages under study, ethnicity was not at the core of local leaders’ concerns. What was important to them was behaviour: « strangers » were more feared than « foreigners ». However, these categories can of course overlap, and the kind of citizenship that these papers encourage to produce is compatible with ethnic nationalisms. Based on historical and ethnographic research carried in rural and urban areas of Toro and Buganda, the chapter allows a better historicization of the models of citizenship promoted by the Movement regime. It also describes the popular conceptions of what it is to « know someone » within which biometrics were introduced, and the debates these new methodologies of knowledge have triggered within local polities.
In the Rwenzori region of Uganda, radio drives the « bureaucratisation of the world ». By
encoura... more In the Rwenzori region of Uganda, radio drives the « bureaucratisation of the world ». By
encouraging the creation of « listeners’ forums », it produces pernickety technocrats and watchful
citizens. Old patterns of leadership, based on patronage and the endorsement of a pedagogic
mission to enlighten the masses, are renewed through the spirit of neoliberalism. These radio
shows breathe new life into the State and bring it back in the centre of development. However, in
the radio polity, its benefi ts are limited to « concerned citizens », those who reject, precisely, the
idea that State interventions are a universal right, and those who demonstrate their seemliness
through the bureaucratic attire. For those, the listeners’ forums should be understood within
larger dreams of modernity and moral rebirth, where bureaucracy becomes the vehicle of a
patriotic ambition of civilisation, equality and standardisation.
Together, radio and mobile phones have been the object of many political expectations held by dev... more Together, radio and mobile phones have been the object of many political expectations held by development actors in Africa. Stating that they enable ‘participation’ is, however, not enough to understand what is at stake in a given context. It is necessary to describe exactly the kind of participation taking place. Despite development projects inceptors’ intentions, the way people use ICT (information and communication technologies) objects sometimes leads to a rerouting of their political meaning. This article deciphers these sideway uses and what they imply in the Ugandan context. Based on the example of ‘serial callers' (people who intensively call in during radio talk shows), it demonstrates that ICT objects become the site of the elaboration of particular ways of conceiving one's roles, status and duties in the polity, as an ‘educator’ or a ‘representative’, blurring established distinctions between political representation and participation, and offers a nuanced picture of the complexities of patronage politics.
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Book by Florence Brisset-Foucault
Brisset-Foucault conducted extensive fieldwork on the ebimeeza. The resulting ethnography invigorates the study of political domination and documents a short-lived but highly original sphere of political expression. Brisset-Foucault thus does justice to the richness and depth of Uganda’s complex political and radio culture as well as to the story of ambitious young people who didn’t want to behave the way the state expected them to. Positioned at the intersection of media studies and political science, Talkative Polity will help us all rethink the way in which public life works.
Edited special issues by Florence Brisset-Foucault
Loin de toute vision normative, ce dossier tente d’éclairer ces questions par une approche ethnographique des espaces de discussion de rue et de ceux qui les animent. Il entend proposer un autre éclairage sur les problématiques de la citoyenneté en Afrique et engager une réflexion comparatiste sur les fondations sociologiques, historiques et imaginaires de l’espace public au Sud comme au Nord du Sahara. Il ne s’agit point, dans une démarche évaluative, de confronter un idéaltype à des situations particulières mais bien plutôt de réfléchir à la généalogie des pratiques, des institutions et des imaginaires qui, dans chaque société, ont pu conduire à telle ou telle conception de la citoyenneté et de la discussion publique. Nous partons de l’idée que l’analyse des pratiques quotidiennes ou cérémonielles d’assemblée et de sociabilité nous donnent des indications précieuses sur les représentations, les conceptions et les débats locaux autour du bon gouvernement, des fondements de la citoyenneté et de la civilité. Les modes concrets d’organisation de ces assemblées, des tours de parole, de la disposition spatiale de l’assistance, influencent la forme et le contenu des discours. Notre hypothèse est qu’ils sont aussi révélateurs des rapports de pouvoir et des dynamiques d’inclusion et d’exclusion sociopolitiques sous-jacents à des modèles de citoyenneté concurrents au sein d’une société donnée.
Papers by Florence Brisset-Foucault
Democratizing the gun. The composite imagination of a coercive citizenship in Uganda
When they took power in 1986, the new political elites of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) promoted a renewed model of citizenship in the name of which citizens had to take charge of their own security. This article reexamines the social and historical depth of the conceptions of citizenship and belonging that are expressed through practices of participation in law and order and their political promotion by connecting several scales : transnational, national, regional, and local. Because they have been the source of much brutality, these practices have been criticized. However, they can also support the production of moral communities. Far from being antagonistic, the conceptions of order and citizenship as expressed and produced from below and from above through participation in law and order concur in outlining an ideal of the village as the cradle of the production of civic persons.
encouraging the creation of « listeners’ forums », it produces pernickety technocrats and watchful
citizens. Old patterns of leadership, based on patronage and the endorsement of a pedagogic
mission to enlighten the masses, are renewed through the spirit of neoliberalism. These radio
shows breathe new life into the State and bring it back in the centre of development. However, in
the radio polity, its benefi ts are limited to « concerned citizens », those who reject, precisely, the
idea that State interventions are a universal right, and those who demonstrate their seemliness
through the bureaucratic attire. For those, the listeners’ forums should be understood within
larger dreams of modernity and moral rebirth, where bureaucracy becomes the vehicle of a
patriotic ambition of civilisation, equality and standardisation.
Brisset-Foucault conducted extensive fieldwork on the ebimeeza. The resulting ethnography invigorates the study of political domination and documents a short-lived but highly original sphere of political expression. Brisset-Foucault thus does justice to the richness and depth of Uganda’s complex political and radio culture as well as to the story of ambitious young people who didn’t want to behave the way the state expected them to. Positioned at the intersection of media studies and political science, Talkative Polity will help us all rethink the way in which public life works.
Loin de toute vision normative, ce dossier tente d’éclairer ces questions par une approche ethnographique des espaces de discussion de rue et de ceux qui les animent. Il entend proposer un autre éclairage sur les problématiques de la citoyenneté en Afrique et engager une réflexion comparatiste sur les fondations sociologiques, historiques et imaginaires de l’espace public au Sud comme au Nord du Sahara. Il ne s’agit point, dans une démarche évaluative, de confronter un idéaltype à des situations particulières mais bien plutôt de réfléchir à la généalogie des pratiques, des institutions et des imaginaires qui, dans chaque société, ont pu conduire à telle ou telle conception de la citoyenneté et de la discussion publique. Nous partons de l’idée que l’analyse des pratiques quotidiennes ou cérémonielles d’assemblée et de sociabilité nous donnent des indications précieuses sur les représentations, les conceptions et les débats locaux autour du bon gouvernement, des fondements de la citoyenneté et de la civilité. Les modes concrets d’organisation de ces assemblées, des tours de parole, de la disposition spatiale de l’assistance, influencent la forme et le contenu des discours. Notre hypothèse est qu’ils sont aussi révélateurs des rapports de pouvoir et des dynamiques d’inclusion et d’exclusion sociopolitiques sous-jacents à des modèles de citoyenneté concurrents au sein d’une société donnée.
Democratizing the gun. The composite imagination of a coercive citizenship in Uganda
When they took power in 1986, the new political elites of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) promoted a renewed model of citizenship in the name of which citizens had to take charge of their own security. This article reexamines the social and historical depth of the conceptions of citizenship and belonging that are expressed through practices of participation in law and order and their political promotion by connecting several scales : transnational, national, regional, and local. Because they have been the source of much brutality, these practices have been criticized. However, they can also support the production of moral communities. Far from being antagonistic, the conceptions of order and citizenship as expressed and produced from below and from above through participation in law and order concur in outlining an ideal of the village as the cradle of the production of civic persons.
encouraging the creation of « listeners’ forums », it produces pernickety technocrats and watchful
citizens. Old patterns of leadership, based on patronage and the endorsement of a pedagogic
mission to enlighten the masses, are renewed through the spirit of neoliberalism. These radio
shows breathe new life into the State and bring it back in the centre of development. However, in
the radio polity, its benefi ts are limited to « concerned citizens », those who reject, precisely, the
idea that State interventions are a universal right, and those who demonstrate their seemliness
through the bureaucratic attire. For those, the listeners’ forums should be understood within
larger dreams of modernity and moral rebirth, where bureaucracy becomes the vehicle of a
patriotic ambition of civilisation, equality and standardisation.