Description

The Politics of Hidden Urbanisation amidst conflict and forced displacement in the DRC

Closing Workshop:

Date: March 26, 2026 ( Thu) 

Time: 10:00- 16:00 CET

Venue: Rm. 301, 3rd Floor, Technicum 1 Bldg., UFO Campus, Ghent University

Karen Büscher and Jeroen Cuvelier warmly invite interested participants to engage with project outcomes and join a discussion on its questions, findings, and ongoing reflections. All those interested in learning more and contributing to the conversation are welcome.  

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

This project has looked into various ‘hidden’ forms of urbanity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in order to achieve a better understanding of the profoundly political character of rapid urbanisation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Several of Congo’s provinces experience the unplanned mushrooming of new small towns in areas characterised by violent conflict and forced displacement. 

From a political anthropological perspective, by bringing the political to the centre of our analysis of these dynamics of rapid urbanisation,  these ‘hidden’ towns have been studied as vital nodes in broader political-economic and military constellations. 

Based on fieldwork in Goma, Bukavu, Kasumbalesa, Rubaya, Minova and Minembwe, a Congo- and Flanders- based group of researchers has documented the political as well as politicised  emergence and growth of hidden towns in the rural hinterlands of the DRC, turning these into central arenas of local, provincial and national struggles for power and control.

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The closing workshop is free, but registration is required.

The workshop will be held in a hybrid format. For online participants, please sign in using the Teams link below.

Closing Meeting "The Politics of Hidden Urbanisation" | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams

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PROGRAM:

HIDDEN URBANISATION: The Politics of City-Making in Contexts of Conflict and Forced Displacement

Final Project Workshop

10:00 – 10:15 Welcome & Opening

10:15 – 11:15 Session 1 Hidden Urbanisation: on project dreams - and wake ups, conceptual archtecture and analytical landscapes

11:15 – 11:30 Coffee break

11:30 – 12:30 Session 2 Hidden and Exposed Fields and Selves: Multi-sited and collaborative fieldwork experiences in contentious and violent cities-in-the-making

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch break

13:30 – 14:30 Session 3 From the politics of city-making to the politics of knowledge-making: academic and non-academic resonance of the project outcomes

14:30 – 14:45 Coffee break

14:45 – 15:45 Session 4 Mapping Potential Afterlives: connecting actors, cases, and questions

15:45 – 16:00 Wrap up and apero