Religious institutions and the politics of access to basic services in displacement contexts: bureaucratising assistance or gifts of grace?

TY - CONF

T1 - Religious institutions and the politics of access to basic services in displacement contexts

T2 - Paper presented at Property and Citizenship in Developing Societies, Copenhagen, Denmark.

AU - Lauterbach, Karen

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - This paper provides a study of religious institutions as service providers in contexts of crises and displacement. Religious institutions, as well as other non-state institutions, provide access to a vast range of resources and services (such as food, housing, clothes, counseling, money, and access to networks). In contexts of displacement access to basic services is formally regulated by one’s status (e.g. as refugee or national citizen) and by physical location (e.g. in settlements/camps or urban areas). The paper discusses what role religious institutions play when access to services provided by the state or the international humanitarian system is limited or non-existent and what kind of relations of exchange that is at stake. Empirically the project deals with Congolese churches in Kampala, Uganda of which many pastors and members have refugee status.The paper analyses the range and categories of services provided by churches and the categorization of people gaining access to these resources. The furthermore paper discusses what forms of recognition engaging in these more material relations of exchange entail, as well as the forms of authority that are established.

AB - This paper provides a study of religious institutions as service providers in contexts of crises and displacement. Religious institutions, as well as other non-state institutions, provide access to a vast range of resources and services (such as food, housing, clothes, counseling, money, and access to networks). In contexts of displacement access to basic services is formally regulated by one’s status (e.g. as refugee or national citizen) and by physical location (e.g. in settlements/camps or urban areas). The paper discusses what role religious institutions play when access to services provided by the state or the international humanitarian system is limited or non-existent and what kind of relations of exchange that is at stake. Empirically the project deals with Congolese churches in Kampala, Uganda of which many pastors and members have refugee status.The paper analyses the range and categories of services provided by churches and the categorization of people gaining access to these resources. The furthermore paper discusses what forms of recognition engaging in these more material relations of exchange entail, as well as the forms of authority that are established.

M3 - Paper

Y2 - 28 May 2013 through 31 May 2013

ER -