Browsing by Author "Martijn, Duineveld"

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    Material Pacification: How a Conflict Over Paving Uganda’s Tourism Road Got Accidentally Resolved
    (Tourism Planning & Development, 2021) Christine, Ampumuza; Martijn, Duineveld; René, van der Duim
    Starting from an Actor-network Theory (ANT) inspired relational perspective on object formation and material agency, this article analyses the controversies about plans to pave the Ruhija road through Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Uganda). Based on interviews, ethnographic observations, and analysis of relevant documents, we examine the multiple ways in which the Ruhija road is enacted and objectified in conservation, tourism, and planning practices. We further show how these different objectifications of the Ruhija road not only led to enduring conflicts but also contributed to postponing the plans to pave the road. We argue that improving traction of the road pacified the conflicts. The partial solidification of the muddiest parts of the road unintentionally matched with the different “road realities” of the actors involved. Our analysis shows how the vibrancy of materiality is always relational, and can only be understood by taking into account the context of their objectification
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    The most marginalized people in Uganda? Alternative realities of Batwa at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
    (Elsevier, 2020) Christine, Ampumuza; Martijn, Duineveld; Ren´e van der, Duim
    Indigenous peoples such as the Batwa in Uganda are predominantly seen as marginalised groups, leaving little room for foregrounding their power, influence and involvement in tourism and development. Inspired by Foucauldian discourse theory and Actor-Network Theory [ANT], we use the concept of relational agency to analyse how the Batwa contribute to conservation and tourism development, and deepen our understanding of agency in the context of the Batwa at the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Uganda). Based on this conceptualisation we analysed the dominant (academic and non-academic) discourses on the Batwa in the light of in-depth ethnographic research to seek for alternative Batwa realities. Whereas scientific, NGO and governmental literature predominantly reduced the Batwa to marginalised, poor and oppressed victims of development, our ethnographic research observed the Batwa as a vibrant community that deploys expertise on forest ecology, tourism entrepreneurship, organisational capacity and political activism. With such insights we discuss the consequences of agency reduction and the ways to take the Batwa’s situational agency into account. Highlighting the multiple realities of Batwa-ness provide a starting point of relating with the Batwa in ways that acknowledge them as agential, rather than only marginalised.