Africa’s social diversity is being reshaped by the mobility of those within it. Their movements and interactions are generating novel social and political configurations that give cause to reconsider the spatial, ethical, and conceptual foundations of social and political theory. These include definitions and responses to the ‘other’; the spatial bases of political community; and how mobility and translocal connections are positioning African cities and Africans within global circulation of values and power.
The initiatives conducted by Chair affiliates and students are radically interdisciplinary and destabilising, in ways that provide insights in to underexplored processes with acute theoretical and practical significance. These inquires work across sub-Saharan Africa and in partnership with scholars on four continents in ways that insert creatively curated empirical insights into ongoing theoretical and policy debates around the foundations of political authority, the role of law in regulating differences, and the meaning of violence in shaping tomorrow’s communities.
