| Project/Area Number |
21K20108
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Review Section |
0106:Political science and related fields
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| Research Institution | Sophia University |
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Principal Investigator |
KINYUA Kithinji 上智大学, アジア文化研究所, 研究員 (50909265)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2021-08-30 – 2023-03-31
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2022)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,120,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥720,000)
Fiscal Year 2022: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
Fiscal Year 2021: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
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| Keywords | Digital platforms / Digital democracy / Decentralisation / State programmes / Rumours / Kenya’s 2022 elections / Rumours and gossip / Kenya's 2022 elections / Social network analysis / State Programmes |
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| Outline of Research at the Start |
This study is about the effects netted upon daily livelihoods of Kenyans by emerging digital technologies. The purpose is to clarify the reality of how ordinary citizens are taking advantage of the digital platforms to engage and participate in the state’s and market’s decentralised programmes. Using ethnographic data, I aim to elucidate the dynamic aspects in which interpersonal interactions enable mobilisation of resources, helping youths to leverage digital platforms to contest and claim political rights from elected officials and local and national government representatives.
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
This research explored interpersonal links among rural dwellers in Kenya to predict how they are applied on emerging digital platforms. We established the patterns that youth create and imply during an election season. We established that the networks traditionally used for political mobilisation in Kenya remain key elements of leveraging fiscal opportunities, both in plug-off and digital spaces. We evaluated common narratives that took the form of rumours during the peak of the election season. We found that the discourses of ordinary people have distinct features that explain patterns of determining who to vote for, and they remain similar on digital platforms and plug-off spaces. This study expanded notions of rumours in Kenyan political discourse as intermingled in both digital and plug-off spaces, describing rumours as a weapon for the disenfranchised to engage with the State. The impact is analysed as an increased engagement with State resources, at times claiming them as rights.
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| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
This work expounds notions of rumours in Kenya's political discourse as weapons of disenfranchised engaging the State. We use social network analysis to understand mobilisation in digital and plug-off spaces. We unravel political discourse in Africa in the wake of the global phenomenon of fake news.
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