Reading project society in the landscape

Szántó, Diana (2016) Reading project society in the landscape. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 61 (1). pp. 227-241. ISSN 1216-9803

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Abstract

The paper proposes a short reflection on the nature of the post war political transformation in Sierra Leone, taking the visual signs of the streets as a starting point. The author observed the post-conflict democratisation process over five years, between 2008 and 2012, and describes how reading the political slogans, bill boards and popular graffitis allowed her following the subtle socio-economic changes characterising the country. The underlying argument is that the largely externally led liberal peace building using foreign and local NGOs as engines of a deep social transformation was based on abstract promises that ultimately failed to realise. Without effectively changing people’s lives, these abstract promises normalised a value system that prepared a capitalist take offbut ten years after the end of the civil war capitalist development still worked only for a tiny minority, making many people doubt about the benevolent nature of globalisation.

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