Activities

Posters with motivating slogans and visionary pictures are sold by merchants in the streets of Kenya.

Scientific Events and Panels

Lena Kroeker was an invited speaker at the Round Table concerning Middle Class and the elections 2017 (Electional Dialogue Forum). This took place at the National Museum of Kenya, Nairobi, on 7/4/2017.

The exhibition ‘Future Africa – Visions in Time’ was opened at the National Museum in Kenya. Dieter Neubert gave the keynote at the vernissage (6/4/2017). The following day Dieter Neubert and Lena Kroeker presented art works of James Muriuki (Dieter Neubert) and Syowia Kiambi (Lena Kroeker) with regard to their respective relation to our research on middle classes.

Lena Kroeker and Dieter Neubert were invited to present their works on the kenyan middle classes in Bangalore, India, at an international conference hosted by the Institute for Social and Economic Change and the World Society Foundation. The conference was entitled "The Middle Class in World Society" (15.-17.12.2016).

The Federal Ministry for economic cooperation and development (BMZ), the African Law Association and the Bochum Institut für Entwicklungsforschung und Entwicklungspolitik(IEE) invited Lena Kroeker. On the 11 November 2016 she spoke at their symposium on 'Law for Development: Strengthening Social Protection Systems in Africa" about social protection in Kenya.

The African Studies Association of the UK (ASAUK) hosted three panels on the African middle class in the course of their biannual conference in september 2016. Lena Kroeker presented a paper about "Social Security of the Kenyan Middle Class: Maintaining a Standard of Living" in the panel on ‘Middle-class performativity in Africa’.

On 23 June 2016 Lena Kroeker presented the paper entitled ‘"Sometimes you need to be selfish": kinship webs of the Kenyan middle class’ at the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) in Milano.

As part of the Bayreuth Academy’s Review and Outlook of four years work Lena Kroeker gave on the 16. of June a paper about “Investment into Future - Social Security among Kenyan Middle Classes”.

From 4 to 6 May the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) held an international Workshop on “Inequality and Middle Class Development in Africa” in Cape Town. Maike Voigt and Dieter Neubert presented their work on “Social Mobility and Middle Class Entrepreneurs in Kenya“ and „(Middle) Class and Socio-Cultural Diversity in Kenya“, respectively.

In summer 2016 the Sub-Project was responsible for organizing and hosting the Working-Group G . Please find all information about the activities, that took place as part of the Working-Group G here.

On the 2 and 3 of June 2016 a Workshop of the Project “Future Africa” from Bayreuth and of the Project “African Future-making" took place in Bonn. Lena Kroeker, Konstantin Katsakioris and Doris Löhr presented their work in the Panel "Visionen im Umbruch" Please find the programme and documentation here.

From 27 - 29 of April 2016 the Workshop "Middle Classes in Africa – anthropological and sociological perspectives" organized by Florian Stoll took place at Iwalewahaus Bayreuth. Numerous distinguished researchers followed our invitation to Bayreuth. Programm.

Organisation of two Panels at the Forum of the International Sociological Association (ISA). "The Futures We Want: Global Sociology and the Struggles for a better World" in Vienna. by Dieter Neubert and Florian Stoll (TP 3).
Panel 1: "Alternative Futures of the South"	Panel 2: "Contested futures of the South"

Maike Voigt and Lena Kroeker are organizing a day with the topic "My Future" at the Mbitha Primary School. The pupils are writing essays about their visions of the future.

11 and 12 January: Kick-off Workshop to discuss anthopological and sociological research on meiidle classes. Anthropologists, Sociologists and geographers were invited to share their ideas with the SP 3 members. Thanks to this interdisciplinary exchange, new questions concerning this topic could be raised and new insight from the research areas in Kenya, Ethiopia, Benin and Turkey, could be obtained. The results will be published in the next academy reflects-Working Papers by Lena Kroeker and Maike Voigt.

Maike Voigt participated in the PhD-Workshop of the Department of Sociology & Anthropology with the topic “Preliminary Findings and Emerging Research Themes”, Maseno University (23.10.2015).

Maike Voigt took part in the conference “The New Middle Class in the Global South” at the Wits University, Johannesburg (21.-22.09. 2015).

At the XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology at Yokohama, Japan, Dieter Neubert organised a panel titled „Middle Class as Driver of (Democratic) Change?".

Lena Kroeker together with Valerie Hänsch organized on the 13 of June 2014 the Panel: "Uncertainty & Future" at the Vereinigung für Afrikawissenschaften in Germany (VAD E.V.), taking place in Bayreuth. The results will soon be published in Edition  (22/2017) of the Tsantsa - Zeitschrift der Schweizerischen Ethnologischen Gesellschaft.

Florian Stoll, David O’Kane (MPI Halle) and Tabea Scharrer (MPI Halle) organise the Panel: „The futures of the African (middle) classes“ at the Conference of the African Studies Association in Germany (VAD) (June 11th – 14th 2014).

Florian Stoll and Lena Kroeker present first hypotheses of their fieldwork and discuss with local experts at the DAAD Regional Office for Africa in Nairobi (October 22nd 2013).                                                                   

Florian Stoll presents the paper: „Social Milieus and their Use of Time in Recife, Brazil. A Transfer of Bourdieu ́s Sociology to a Specific Context in the Global South.“ at the International Conference of the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies at the University of Bayreuth titled: „Conceptualising Future. Current Debates in Regional and Systematic Research“ (July 6th 2013). For the conference program click here.

Dieter Neubert and Dominique Darbon (University of Bordeaux) organise the panel „Middle classes in Africa: the making of social category and its social meaning and uses “ at the 5th European Conference on African Studies (ECAS) titled: „African dynamics in a multipolar world.“ in Lisbon, Portugal. Within the panel Dieter Neubert and Florian Stoll present the paper: „One or many middle class(es) in Kenya? Towards an analytical frame for distinguishing subgroups“ (June 27th 2013). More information is available here.

A two days workshop was held at the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies titled: „Middle Classes on the Rise“. Scholars from Germany, Brazil, England, France and Switzerland debated about middle classes in India, Brazill, Kenya, Uganda, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana (May 28th/29th 2013). Please find the program here.