Crafting Power : The Situatedness of Artistic Handicraft and Civic Engagement in Contemporary Uganda.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Klages, Anna-Lisa.

Contributor:

Ruchatz, Jens

Series:

Edition Medienwissenschaft Series

Edition Medienwissenschaft Series ; v.3

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (335 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Crafting Power

Edition Medienwissenschaft, Vol. 3: Die Fernsehserie

Place of Publication:

Bielefeld : transcript Verlag, 2025.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

In contemporary Uganda, involved actors often associate artistic handicraft production with sustainable economic development and women empowerment.Others highlight its significance for the situated understandings of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, framing artistic handicrafts as indigenous art embedded into local knowledges.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Images and Figures

List of Abbreviations and Acronyms

Preface

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Background

From Colonialism to Development

The Cultural Turn as Point of Departure?

The Cultural Situatedness of Concepts

Research as a Site of Pluridisciplinary Messiness

Turning to the Situatedness of Inquiry

1.2 Research Question and Aim of Research

1.3 Book Outline

1.4 Theory and Methodology

Introduction to Theory and Methodology

Chapter 2: Art, History, and Terminology

2.1 Introduction

The Question of the Meanings of 'Art'

2.2 The Establishment of Formal Art Education

The Educational Agenda of Margaret Trowell

Art in Missionary School Education

From Missionary Education to the School of Fine Arts at Makerere College

The Commodification of Art Products

2.3 The Nexus of Art, Politics, and the Public Sphere

2.3.1 Artistic Articulation and Politics in Post‐Independence Uganda

Art in Uganda Around Independence

Women Empowerment and Artistic Handicraft Work

Paradigm Shift at the Makerere Art School

Summary

2.3.2 Art, Material Culture, and Relationality. Artistic Features of Culture and Socially‐Engaged Art

Wickerwork

Kwanjula

Socially Engaged Art with Local Material Culture

2.3.3 The Emergence of International Development. Art as, for, and in Development

The Cultural Turn in International Development

2.4 Conclusions

Chapter 3: Civil Society, Uganda, and Power Dynamics in the Postcolony

3.1 Introduction

3.2 The State, the Public, and the Private

The Toxic Brew of Unreflected Political Theorization

Civil Society as the Realm of Free Associations

Searching for Equality or the Need for the Democratization of Civil Society

3.3 Contemporary Debates about Civil Society in Uganda.

Grounding Civil Society in Local Histories

Civil Society as an Imported Concept During Colonial Rule

Grounding Civil Society in Local Political History. The Bataka Movement

Ethnicity, Gender, and Faith - Implications for Contemporary Notions of Empirically Grounded Civil Society in Uganda

3.4 Conclusions. Linking Art with Civil Society in Contemporary Uganda

Chapter 4: Constructing Postcolonial Situational Analysis

4.1 Introduction

The Process of Gathering Data and Sample

4.2 Research Paradigm and Epistemological Parameters

Central Aspects of Postcolonial Theories

Situational Analysis. Power, Complexity, and Relationalities

Making Situational Analysis More Explicitly Postcolonial

4.3 Visual and Material Culture in Situational Analysis

Analyzing Visual Material with Situational Analysis

Material Culture in Situational Analysis

4.4 Doing Situational Analysis

"All Is Data" and Methods of Gathering it

Ethical Considerations

4.4.1 Analysis with Mapping and Memoing

Situational Maps

Analyzing Relations with Situational Maps

Social WorldsArenas Maps

Positional Maps

4.4.2 The Research Process. From Explorative Research to a Focused Case‑Study

The Field Research Process. Induction and Abduction

From Explorative Interviewing and Archival Research …

… Through a Shift in My Involvement with Socially Engaged Art in Uganda

… Towards the Development of a Focused Case Study. The NACCAU and Independent Handicraft Groups

The Covid‐Pandemic

4.5 Limitations

The Nexus between Creative Industries, Civil Society, and Artistic Handicraft Products

Chapter 5: Situating Artistic Handicraft Products

5.1 Introduction

5.2 The Contested Meanings of Artistic Handicraft Products

Artistic Handicraft Products as Boundary Object

Situating the NACCAU as Case Study.

5.2.1 (Visual) Art World

'Art as a Tool' - Empowerment of Marginalized Others through Artistic Activity

Linking Artistic Practice with Tangible and Intangible Culture

5.2.2 Artistically‐Oriented Handicraft Associations and NGOs World

Culturalization of Artistic Handicraft Objects

Artistic handicraft objects as agents of sustainable development

5.2.3 Cultural Crafts Industry Funding Arena

5.2.4 The UNESCO

5.2.6 The Tourism World

5.2.7 The Minoritized Social World of Independent Handicraft Groups

Artistic handicraft products and their agency in building conviviality

Artistic Handicraft Objects as 'Generational Heritage Spirit'

5.3 Conclusions

Chapter 6: The NACCAU

6.1 Introduction. The Cultural Turn in International Development Revisited

6.2 The NACCAU

Of Entrepreneurs and Intellectuals

Being the NACCAU

Finding (new) Allies

Authorship of Handicraft Products

The NACCAU as Intermediate

Place Matters

The Savings Circle

Becoming the NACCAU

The Situatedness of the NACCAU in the Ugandan Artistic Discourse

6.3 Interlinkages and ‑Dependencies

Cultural Policies

The 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions

International Cooperations

"Strengthening the Sustainability of Creative Industries in Uganda"

The "Marketability of East African Cultural Crafts" Project

Constructing the Subaltern‐Artisan‐Others

Overcoming Poverty

6.4 Conclusions

Chapter 7: Crafting a Different Story

7.1 Introduction

Turning to Overheard Positions

7.2 Gendered Spaces in Civil Society

Sharing Knowledges and Conviviality

Relating to Civil Society

Artistic Handicraft Objects, Materiality and Aesthetics

Eco‐Sustainability and the SDGs in Artistic Handicraft Production

7.3 Negotiating Lived Culture

Imbalu.

Kumusambwa Kwe Mbalu - The "Spirit of Imbalu"

Of Bells and Beads: The Imbalu Costume

Cultural Heritage: On Whose Terms?

7.4 Conclusions

The Gender Dimension

Cultural Expression in Civil Society

Chapter 8: Conclusions

Actors, Discourses, and Agency

Meeting Grounds of Civil Society and Artistic Handicrafts (Production)

The Development Narrative. Artistic Handicraft as (no) Tool for Development

Politics at Work. (Im‑)Possibilities of Homegrown Answers

Moving Beyond this Research. Handicraft Art in the Sphere(s) of Civil Society

References.

Notes:

This eBook is made available Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

3-8394-1755-4

OCLC:

1559409975