Problem statement & theoretical hypotheses Problem statement: How can the EAC become embedded in civil society? Theoretical hypotheses 1. Contending EA political elites manipulate and exploit social identities and ethnic groups in order to secure their claims to political positions and state resources. 2. The creation of an integrated regional identity among east Africans based on shared regional citizenship and language is essential to make the EAC a successful integration project 3. CSO’s can function as effective participatory structures and encourage civic engagement in socio-political processes and can thereby become means to link the EAC to civil society. To clarify the problem statement above, it deals with the broad question of how the EAC can become rooted in civil society. In order to disclose the internal logic of this project and to present the research question and theoretical hypotheses in a straightforward manner the table above has been created which will serve as a steering guide through the thesis. The table should be read in a hierarchical order starting out with a broad open ended research question, leading into 3 theoretical hypotheses which are examined in the thesis to find answers to the research question. In the next section, the methodology of the thesis will be outlined, to illustrate the research design, information gathering methods and limitations inherent in this thesis.
Methodological considerations This section is divided into 2 parts, 1) outlining the methodology, research design, investigation methods & data sources of this thesis and 2) the thesis limitations Methodology, research design, applied methods & data sources Methodology & research design A fundamental dispute in sociological theory (Hylland-Eriksen 1993) has evolved between proponents of procesual and structural theories of how social structures in society evolve are maintained and change. Actor oriented scientists argue that the actions of individuals and groups are fundamental for the social structures & practices existing in society, whereas structuralists view society as composed of various social institutions with specific functions that sustain the social structure of society. Social constructionism & interactionism spring out of this fundamental scientific debate, and are the theoretical points of departure of the methods and theories used in this thesis and constitute its methodology. Social constructionism as a theoretical paradigm was initiated by Berger & Luckman which presented a social theory of how social realities and structures basically are shaped and changed through ongoing processes of human transactions. Their fundamental insight is that human knowledge and reality perceptions are created and altered through social interaction, whereby humans through socialization processes are introduced to the social world which they through their actions and discourses reproduce and alter. These insights sparked a new scientific paradigm ”social constructionism” that in opposition to positivist accounts of social reality which are based on universal laws and mechanisms, argued that all social phenomena are creations of human transactions and that knowledge is socially constructed. By emphasizing that social phenomena are constructed by humans in a social context, it becomes possible to deconstruct and investigate how and by which means social institutions and reality perceptions are created and maintained. Social constructionists emphasize that the social world is a product of the intersubjective interactions of social actors, and that social phenomena needs to be related to a social context in order to grasp their meaning and impact on a given society. The implication of these insights is that social constructs such as “the state”, “ethnicity” & “the EAC” should not be seen as natural, objective entities, but as specific historical constructs, created by social actors with specific aims. Interactionism, a sub variant, emphasizes that social structures are generated through individual and
The African post colonial state The African states are key actors in the present regional integration efforts in EA. Therefore it’s important to gain a theoretical understanding of 1) the historical background of African states and 2) their normative and judicial foundation which are explanatory factors for state actors’ transactions in regional integration schemes. The historical background of Africa states. Conceptualizing the origin of nation states, it’s important to remember that these entities are not natural, geographical forms, but the outcome of specific actors’ transactions and historical processes that organized the world into the current patchwork of states. As Jackson mentions: “Far from being natural entities, modern sovereign states are entirely historical artifacts the oldest of which have been in existence in their present shape and alignment only for the past three or four centuries” (Jackson 1990:7) The “reality of the nation state” was created deliberately via the “invention of tradition” (Hobsbawm & Ranger 1983) whereby the nation state was grounded in invented myths and folk traditions, and the cognitive construction of an “imagined political community” (Anderson 2001) supposed to be internally homogenous & sovereign with territorial boundaries. This European invention was extended globally through voluntary approbation or colonial conquest as was the case in Africa. Pre colonial societies in Africa varied significantly from the bounded European states. Before the colonial age the African continent was inhabited by ever changing constellations of kingdoms that ruled their subjects via patronage networks. The EA region was populated by fluctuating kingdoms, traders and war lords that had control over specific areas and trade routes. African societies (Medard & Doyle 2007) were characterized by osmotic ethnic communities with a core area of organized governance with a king or supreme chief and peripheries that were scantly controlled and frequently changed alliances between different ethnic groups. The reach and capacity of pre colonial African communities was an outcome of wars, alliances and negotiations between the different ethnic communities and were thus in a state of constant flux, lacking territorial demarcations. In Berman’s words; “Pre-colonial political and socio-cultural boundaries were