Doctoral Dissertation Research: Citizenship and Property in Post-Conflict Angola

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University of Chicago doctoral student, Claudia Gastrow, supervised by Dr. Jean Comaroff, will investigate the role of property relations in the emergence of new forms of citizenship. This research takes place against the rising number of disputes over urban land throughout the world. This has been particularly acute in cities of the Global South, where rapid urbanization has been accompanied by growing socio-economic inequality. The researcher will track urban residents' responses to contemporary policy interventions to understand how the lines of citizenship and sovereignty are being redrawn through the reconstitution of the urban environment and concepts of ownership. The researcher will carry out twelve months of fieldwork in Luanda, Angola, where housing and property have become one of the preeminent sites of dispute between the city's residents and the state since of the end of the Angolan civil war (1975-2002). As the Angolan state seeks to create a new urban centre to reflect the country's recently established peace and growing economic prosperity, urban residents are faced with the twin processes of urban destruction and construction, as well as changes in property law that have rendered illegal many forms of wartime ownership. The researcher will use a mix of social science research methods to collect both qualitative and quantitative data, including sustained observations, semi-structured interviews, archival research, and the recording of life histories. Focal research areas are: how and why conflicing understandings of citizenship are produced, 2) which processes contribute to the politicization of the built environment, and 3) how new forms of ownership and understandings of property affect political relationships. Through reassessing the contemporary significance of property relations and housing, this research will make an original contribution to social science theory of the relationship between property rights and political inclusion. The findings from this research also will be useful to policy makers concerned with politically and environmentally sustainable urban development. Funding this research also supports the education of a social scientist.