Amadu Wurie Khan - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Amadu Wurie Khan
Oral Tradition, 2009
Introduction: The Artistic Variation Imperative The Themne belong to the Mande-speaking group of ... more Introduction: The Artistic Variation Imperative The Themne belong to the Mande-speaking group of West Africa, part of the Bantu group (see Asher and Moseley 1993). They are one of the two largest of the 16 ethnic groups present in Sierra Leone, and constitute about 30 percent of Sierra Leone's total population of 5.4 million. They predominate in the northern region of the country. Themne social and cultural traditions include "secret" societies, 1 mask devils, 2 and folklore practices and genres like storytelling, dirges, poetry, dances, songs, and folk theatre. As with other ethnic groups in Sierra Leone, most traditional Themne folklore is handed down by means of storytelling. In almost all communities, whether rural or urban, storytelling serves a plethora of functions: social, mythopoetic, pedagogical, recreational, artistic, and aesthetic (see also Sieber 1971, Bauman 1983, Finnegan 1992a and b, Okpewho 1990). The Themne, like other cultures in Sierra Leone and indeed throughout Africa, are a predominantly non-literate society that is gradually being exposed to audiovisual mass media forms of entertainment including the cinema, television, video, radio, and, very recently, mobile phones (see UNESCO 1990, Khan 1997a and b, also Mushengyezi 2003). 3 This exposure has placed greater demands on Themne oral art practitioners to make their material and performance more attractive to their clientele, particularly to the younger generation, as has been observed elsewhere. The latter constitutes the larger part of the Themne population, and, as the school-going age group is exposed to literate media entertainment forms, it is increasingly likely to lose interest in traditional folklore practices, as has been the case with storytelling in postwar technological societies in the West (for a similar observation among the Irish-Gaelic storytelling traditions, see Delargy 1945). 1 Secret societies are traditional cultural groups that maintain secrecy in their ritual and initiation practices. 2 "Mask devil" refers to a masquerade. 3 Mushengyezi argues that a combination of widespread non-literacy and poverty among Ugandans permits indigenous media to continue to be a viable means of public communication. Though poverty is dominant in Sierra Leone, the use of radio and mobile phone technology is widespread even in remote rural areas and plays a central part in public and interpersonal communication. The same writer infers, however, that the advent of new technology is a potential threat to the use of indigenous media among younger generations of Ugandans.
IGI Global eBooks, Oct 24, 2015
This chapter explores the potential of the Internet for asylum seekers'/refugees&... more This chapter explores the potential of the Internet for asylum seekers'/refugees' political agency and for challenging the boundaries of national citizenship and state sovereignty. It considers that Western governments' formulation of “restrictionist” and “assimilationist” citizenship policies and the conjoining “managerialist” approach to asylum are aimed at asserting state sovereignty and national citizenship. However, it is argued that attempts at the territorial construction of membership amounts to a “sovereignty paradox”: policies promote an international humanitarian norm of citizenship, which depends on state sovereignty for its realisation. Asylum-seeking migrants' views and practices are therefore deployed to explore the counterproductivity of the UK government's attempt to coerce would-be British citizens to have loyalty and allegiance to the nation-state. This UK case study provides empirical substantiation of asylum-seeking migrants' political agency in the West, and the resilience of state sovereignty in affirming an international humanitarian norm of citizenship. It also contributes to an understanding of asylum-seeking migrants' political agency through the Internet in holding political elites in the West accountable for their migration-citizenship policies. This perspective has been strikingly missing in the citizenship and international relations theories, particularly given the context that non-citizen asylum-seeking migrants residing in liberal democracies are a major trigger for these policies. The chapter also attempts to deconstruct the relationship between transnationalism and globalisation: a project that continues to be problematic in the academy.
Contemporary social science, May 29, 2012
This thesis investigates asylum seekers/refugees' orientations to belonging and identity. It is b... more This thesis investigates asylum seekers/refugees' orientations to belonging and identity. It is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted among asylum seekers/refugees residing in Scotland between 2006 and 2008 and on a media monitoring of a number of UK newspapers. The interviews were analysed for interviewees' orientations to feelings of belonging and identity with the UK, Scotland and homelands. They were also analysed for interviewees' perceptions (beliefs and understandings) of newspapers' reporting of asylum and importance to their sense of national belonging and national identity forming. The monitoring provided the context of newspapers' reporting of asylum at the time of interviews. It enabled a small-scale examination of media content with reference to interviewees' perceptions.
Advances in public policy and administration (APPA) book series, 2019
This chapter considers the hypothesis that the online (internet) “hacking” concept has applicatio... more This chapter considers the hypothesis that the online (internet) “hacking” concept has applications for community life and processes of sharing memories and identity, and facilitating social engagement and digital inclusion among residents. It specifically presents how the characteristics and practicality of online hacking inspired the design and functionality of a community digital artwork in a disadvantage urban estate in Edinburgh, UK. In addition, the chapter considers the implication of the hacking practices by and among disadvantaged communities for realizing social action, social engagement, and networked society goals of the UK Government's “Big Society” policy. This is significant because the Big Society agenda promotes an interactive networked culture that has transformative potential to connect citizens, build knowledge and continuous learning, and regenerate communities at times of economic austerity in the UK.
Educating Refugee-background Students, 2018
This report discusses citizenship in Sierra Leone. It explores the history of citizenship in this... more This report discusses citizenship in Sierra Leone. It explores the history of citizenship in this country, modes of acquisition and loss, and current debates and reform plans regarding citizenship policy.Research for the 2020/2021 GLOBALCIT Reports has been supported by the European University Institute's Global Governance Programme and the British Academy Research Project CITMODES (co-directed by the EUI and the University of Edinburgh)
Anti-asylum policies continue to be characteristic of contemporary European Union (EU) countries,... more Anti-asylum policies continue to be characteristic of contemporary European Union (EU) countries, as politicians attempt to placate public anxiety and hostility against perceptions of an asylum ‘influx’ (Chandler 2006, 71). This hostile treatment of asylum seekers and refugees has fallen short of the EU’s commitment to ‘universalising the political subject’ and duty of care to victims of political repression who are not their citizens (Chandler 2006). As the recent United Kingdom (UK) election and EU referendum have shown, anti-asylum and immigration rhetoric tends to heighten as political elites seek to present a ‘fortress Britain’ immigration stance to win political campaigns. There is a presumption that electorates tend to be anti-immigration and anti-asylum, and to win a mandate to govern, political elites make attempts to resonate with the anti-asylum sentiments of their citizens (Nolan 1998, 241). Consequently, successive UK governments have formulated restrictive and assimila...
Modern Folk Devils: Contemporary Constructions of Evil, 2021
This chapter critically reviews policies and news reporting in the United Kingdom claiming that t... more This chapter critically reviews policies and news reporting in the United Kingdom claiming that they create, circulate and sustain a labelling of asylum seekers as folk devils. Drawing on interviews with asylum seekers on their preferred forms of representation, the author argues that, while the news media is mainly blamed for moral panics and representations of asylum seekers as folk devils, policymaking is equally complicit in the current demonization of asylum seekers in the UK.
Review of African Political Economy, 1998
This article considers asylum seekers/refugees’ perceptions of the negative asylum coverage that ... more This article considers asylum seekers/refugees’ perceptions of the negative asylum coverage that dominates mainstream press, as counter-posed to primarily positive representations in community newspapers. It explores how these perceptions, in different ways, contribute to asylum seekers/refugees’ fragility of national belonging, national identity and ability to integrate into the UK. The paper argues that while much of the coverage has questioned ethnic minority migrants’ ability to belong and integrate into an ‘imagined’ British national and cultural community, it incidentally strengthens asylum seekers/refugees’ transnational identities. The article suggests that in addition to a ‘policymaking/structuralist’ paradigm in understanding the ‘inclusion-exclusion’ that asylum seekers/refugees experience in the UK, the agency of news media as a powerful institution ought to be given due prominence. The article will add to calls for a victim centred approach to analysing forced migrants’...
This thesis investigates asylum seekers/refugees' orientations to belonging and identity. It is b... more This thesis investigates asylum seekers/refugees' orientations to belonging and identity. It is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted among asylum seekers/refugees residing in Scotland between 2006 and 2008 and on a media monitoring of a number of UK newspapers. The interviews were analysed for interviewees' orientations to feelings of belonging and identity with the UK, Scotland and homelands. They were also analysed for interviewees' perceptions (beliefs and understandings) of newspapers' reporting of asylum and importance to their sense of national belonging and national identity forming. The monitoring provided the context of newspapers' reporting of asylum at the time of interviews. It enabled a small-scale examination of media content with reference to interviewees' perceptions.
into Britishness: Perceptions of the role of the mainstream and community press
This article argues that, broadly speaking, there are two strands of media representation of the ... more This article argues that, broadly speaking, there are two strands of media representation of the asylum issue in the UK press– asylum-friendly and anti-asylum coverage – and that this dichotomy corresponds to a left-right political leaning. By so doing, the press provide their own understanding of asylum seekers and refugees: firstly, as ‘folk devils’ or the evil cultural ‘other’ mainly in the anti-asylum press, and secondly, as ‘victims’ mainly in the asylum-friendly press. The article consists of two main parts. The first discusses the ways in which the media analysis converges with asylum seekers/refugees’ perceptions of the media coverage. The second considers asylum seekers/refugees’ perceptions that through such representation, parts of the UK press have failed to communicate an already-existing meaning of asylum as defined by international conventions. Perceptions that the misrepresentation contributes to UK citizens’ ignorance of asylum as a humanitarian issue and hostility ...
Introduction ~ Peter Matthews and Dave O'Brien Section 1: After regeneration? Urban Policy an... more Introduction ~ Peter Matthews and Dave O'Brien Section 1: After regeneration? Urban Policy and Communities ~ Stuart Wilks-Heeg Connecting community to the post-regeneration era ~ Peter Matthews and Dave O'Brien When things fall apart ~ Sue Cohen and Morag McDermont Section 2: Exploring Epistemologies Microsolutions for Megaproblems: What works in urban regeneration policy? ~ Max Nathan The work of art in the age of mechanical co-production. Steve Pool and Kate Pahl There is no local here, love ~ Rebecca Bernstein, Antonia Layard, Martin Maudsley and Hilary Ramsden Section 3: New places for communities Forging Communities: the CAER Heritage Project and the dynamics of co-production ~ Clyde Ancarno, Oliver Davis and David Wyatt Lessons from 'The Vale' - the role of hyperlocal media in shaping reputational geographies ~ David Harte Contemporary Governance Discourse and Digital Media: Convergences, Prospects & Problems for the 'Big Society' Agenda ~ Chris Speed, Amadu Wurie Khan, Sharon Baurley and Martin Phillips Section 4: new spaces for policy Localism, neighbourhood planning and community control: the MapLocal pilot ~ Phil Jones, Antonia Layard, Colin Lorne, Chris Speed Translation across borders: Exploring the use, relevance and impact of academic research in the policy process ~ Steve Connelly, Dave Vanderhoven, Catherine Durose, Liz Richardson and Peter Matthews Conclusion ~ Dave O'Brien and Peter Matthews.
This article presents the application of the online (Internet) ‘hacking’ concept to community lif... more This article presents the application of the online (Internet) ‘hacking’ concept to community life and processes from two hypothetical contexts: First, it was hypothesised that technology could be ‘hacked’ into by disadvantaged communities to create a digital public art. Second, the community-generated digital art platform could in turn be used to ‘hack’ into images and memories to facilitate the sharing of conversations and identity, social engagement, and digital inclusion among residents. The article therefore presents how these contexts of the characteristics and practicality of online ‘hacking’ inspired the design and functionality of a community digital artwork in a disadvantage urban estate in Edinburgh, UK. In addition, the article considers the implication of the ‘hacking’ practices by and among disadvantaged communities for realizing the social action, social engagement and networked society goals of the UK Government’s ‘Big Society’ policy. This is significant because the...
Oral Tradition, 2009
Introduction: The Artistic Variation Imperative The Themne belong to the Mande-speaking group of ... more Introduction: The Artistic Variation Imperative The Themne belong to the Mande-speaking group of West Africa, part of the Bantu group (see Asher and Moseley 1993). They are one of the two largest of the 16 ethnic groups present in Sierra Leone, and constitute about 30 percent of Sierra Leone's total population of 5.4 million. They predominate in the northern region of the country. Themne social and cultural traditions include "secret" societies, 1 mask devils, 2 and folklore practices and genres like storytelling, dirges, poetry, dances, songs, and folk theatre. As with other ethnic groups in Sierra Leone, most traditional Themne folklore is handed down by means of storytelling. In almost all communities, whether rural or urban, storytelling serves a plethora of functions: social, mythopoetic, pedagogical, recreational, artistic, and aesthetic (see also Sieber 1971, Bauman 1983, Finnegan 1992a and b, Okpewho 1990). The Themne, like other cultures in Sierra Leone and indeed throughout Africa, are a predominantly non-literate society that is gradually being exposed to audiovisual mass media forms of entertainment including the cinema, television, video, radio, and, very recently, mobile phones (see UNESCO 1990, Khan 1997a and b, also Mushengyezi 2003). 3 This exposure has placed greater demands on Themne oral art practitioners to make their material and performance more attractive to their clientele, particularly to the younger generation, as has been observed elsewhere. The latter constitutes the larger part of the Themne population, and, as the school-going age group is exposed to literate media entertainment forms, it is increasingly likely to lose interest in traditional folklore practices, as has been the case with storytelling in postwar technological societies in the West (for a similar observation among the Irish-Gaelic storytelling traditions, see Delargy 1945). 1 Secret societies are traditional cultural groups that maintain secrecy in their ritual and initiation practices. 2 "Mask devil" refers to a masquerade. 3 Mushengyezi argues that a combination of widespread non-literacy and poverty among Ugandans permits indigenous media to continue to be a viable means of public communication. Though poverty is dominant in Sierra Leone, the use of radio and mobile phone technology is widespread even in remote rural areas and plays a central part in public and interpersonal communication. The same writer infers, however, that the advent of new technology is a potential threat to the use of indigenous media among younger generations of Ugandans.
IGI Global eBooks, Oct 24, 2015
This chapter explores the potential of the Internet for asylum seekers'/refugees&... more This chapter explores the potential of the Internet for asylum seekers'/refugees' political agency and for challenging the boundaries of national citizenship and state sovereignty. It considers that Western governments' formulation of “restrictionist” and “assimilationist” citizenship policies and the conjoining “managerialist” approach to asylum are aimed at asserting state sovereignty and national citizenship. However, it is argued that attempts at the territorial construction of membership amounts to a “sovereignty paradox”: policies promote an international humanitarian norm of citizenship, which depends on state sovereignty for its realisation. Asylum-seeking migrants' views and practices are therefore deployed to explore the counterproductivity of the UK government's attempt to coerce would-be British citizens to have loyalty and allegiance to the nation-state. This UK case study provides empirical substantiation of asylum-seeking migrants' political agency in the West, and the resilience of state sovereignty in affirming an international humanitarian norm of citizenship. It also contributes to an understanding of asylum-seeking migrants' political agency through the Internet in holding political elites in the West accountable for their migration-citizenship policies. This perspective has been strikingly missing in the citizenship and international relations theories, particularly given the context that non-citizen asylum-seeking migrants residing in liberal democracies are a major trigger for these policies. The chapter also attempts to deconstruct the relationship between transnationalism and globalisation: a project that continues to be problematic in the academy.
Contemporary social science, May 29, 2012
This thesis investigates asylum seekers/refugees' orientations to belonging and identity. It is b... more This thesis investigates asylum seekers/refugees' orientations to belonging and identity. It is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted among asylum seekers/refugees residing in Scotland between 2006 and 2008 and on a media monitoring of a number of UK newspapers. The interviews were analysed for interviewees' orientations to feelings of belonging and identity with the UK, Scotland and homelands. They were also analysed for interviewees' perceptions (beliefs and understandings) of newspapers' reporting of asylum and importance to their sense of national belonging and national identity forming. The monitoring provided the context of newspapers' reporting of asylum at the time of interviews. It enabled a small-scale examination of media content with reference to interviewees' perceptions.
Advances in public policy and administration (APPA) book series, 2019
This chapter considers the hypothesis that the online (internet) “hacking” concept has applicatio... more This chapter considers the hypothesis that the online (internet) “hacking” concept has applications for community life and processes of sharing memories and identity, and facilitating social engagement and digital inclusion among residents. It specifically presents how the characteristics and practicality of online hacking inspired the design and functionality of a community digital artwork in a disadvantage urban estate in Edinburgh, UK. In addition, the chapter considers the implication of the hacking practices by and among disadvantaged communities for realizing social action, social engagement, and networked society goals of the UK Government's “Big Society” policy. This is significant because the Big Society agenda promotes an interactive networked culture that has transformative potential to connect citizens, build knowledge and continuous learning, and regenerate communities at times of economic austerity in the UK.
Educating Refugee-background Students, 2018
This report discusses citizenship in Sierra Leone. It explores the history of citizenship in this... more This report discusses citizenship in Sierra Leone. It explores the history of citizenship in this country, modes of acquisition and loss, and current debates and reform plans regarding citizenship policy.Research for the 2020/2021 GLOBALCIT Reports has been supported by the European University Institute's Global Governance Programme and the British Academy Research Project CITMODES (co-directed by the EUI and the University of Edinburgh)
Anti-asylum policies continue to be characteristic of contemporary European Union (EU) countries,... more Anti-asylum policies continue to be characteristic of contemporary European Union (EU) countries, as politicians attempt to placate public anxiety and hostility against perceptions of an asylum ‘influx’ (Chandler 2006, 71). This hostile treatment of asylum seekers and refugees has fallen short of the EU’s commitment to ‘universalising the political subject’ and duty of care to victims of political repression who are not their citizens (Chandler 2006). As the recent United Kingdom (UK) election and EU referendum have shown, anti-asylum and immigration rhetoric tends to heighten as political elites seek to present a ‘fortress Britain’ immigration stance to win political campaigns. There is a presumption that electorates tend to be anti-immigration and anti-asylum, and to win a mandate to govern, political elites make attempts to resonate with the anti-asylum sentiments of their citizens (Nolan 1998, 241). Consequently, successive UK governments have formulated restrictive and assimila...
Modern Folk Devils: Contemporary Constructions of Evil, 2021
This chapter critically reviews policies and news reporting in the United Kingdom claiming that t... more This chapter critically reviews policies and news reporting in the United Kingdom claiming that they create, circulate and sustain a labelling of asylum seekers as folk devils. Drawing on interviews with asylum seekers on their preferred forms of representation, the author argues that, while the news media is mainly blamed for moral panics and representations of asylum seekers as folk devils, policymaking is equally complicit in the current demonization of asylum seekers in the UK.
Review of African Political Economy, 1998
This article considers asylum seekers/refugees’ perceptions of the negative asylum coverage that ... more This article considers asylum seekers/refugees’ perceptions of the negative asylum coverage that dominates mainstream press, as counter-posed to primarily positive representations in community newspapers. It explores how these perceptions, in different ways, contribute to asylum seekers/refugees’ fragility of national belonging, national identity and ability to integrate into the UK. The paper argues that while much of the coverage has questioned ethnic minority migrants’ ability to belong and integrate into an ‘imagined’ British national and cultural community, it incidentally strengthens asylum seekers/refugees’ transnational identities. The article suggests that in addition to a ‘policymaking/structuralist’ paradigm in understanding the ‘inclusion-exclusion’ that asylum seekers/refugees experience in the UK, the agency of news media as a powerful institution ought to be given due prominence. The article will add to calls for a victim centred approach to analysing forced migrants’...
This thesis investigates asylum seekers/refugees' orientations to belonging and identity. It is b... more This thesis investigates asylum seekers/refugees' orientations to belonging and identity. It is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted among asylum seekers/refugees residing in Scotland between 2006 and 2008 and on a media monitoring of a number of UK newspapers. The interviews were analysed for interviewees' orientations to feelings of belonging and identity with the UK, Scotland and homelands. They were also analysed for interviewees' perceptions (beliefs and understandings) of newspapers' reporting of asylum and importance to their sense of national belonging and national identity forming. The monitoring provided the context of newspapers' reporting of asylum at the time of interviews. It enabled a small-scale examination of media content with reference to interviewees' perceptions.
into Britishness: Perceptions of the role of the mainstream and community press
This article argues that, broadly speaking, there are two strands of media representation of the ... more This article argues that, broadly speaking, there are two strands of media representation of the asylum issue in the UK press– asylum-friendly and anti-asylum coverage – and that this dichotomy corresponds to a left-right political leaning. By so doing, the press provide their own understanding of asylum seekers and refugees: firstly, as ‘folk devils’ or the evil cultural ‘other’ mainly in the anti-asylum press, and secondly, as ‘victims’ mainly in the asylum-friendly press. The article consists of two main parts. The first discusses the ways in which the media analysis converges with asylum seekers/refugees’ perceptions of the media coverage. The second considers asylum seekers/refugees’ perceptions that through such representation, parts of the UK press have failed to communicate an already-existing meaning of asylum as defined by international conventions. Perceptions that the misrepresentation contributes to UK citizens’ ignorance of asylum as a humanitarian issue and hostility ...
Introduction ~ Peter Matthews and Dave O'Brien Section 1: After regeneration? Urban Policy an... more Introduction ~ Peter Matthews and Dave O'Brien Section 1: After regeneration? Urban Policy and Communities ~ Stuart Wilks-Heeg Connecting community to the post-regeneration era ~ Peter Matthews and Dave O'Brien When things fall apart ~ Sue Cohen and Morag McDermont Section 2: Exploring Epistemologies Microsolutions for Megaproblems: What works in urban regeneration policy? ~ Max Nathan The work of art in the age of mechanical co-production. Steve Pool and Kate Pahl There is no local here, love ~ Rebecca Bernstein, Antonia Layard, Martin Maudsley and Hilary Ramsden Section 3: New places for communities Forging Communities: the CAER Heritage Project and the dynamics of co-production ~ Clyde Ancarno, Oliver Davis and David Wyatt Lessons from 'The Vale' - the role of hyperlocal media in shaping reputational geographies ~ David Harte Contemporary Governance Discourse and Digital Media: Convergences, Prospects & Problems for the 'Big Society' Agenda ~ Chris Speed, Amadu Wurie Khan, Sharon Baurley and Martin Phillips Section 4: new spaces for policy Localism, neighbourhood planning and community control: the MapLocal pilot ~ Phil Jones, Antonia Layard, Colin Lorne, Chris Speed Translation across borders: Exploring the use, relevance and impact of academic research in the policy process ~ Steve Connelly, Dave Vanderhoven, Catherine Durose, Liz Richardson and Peter Matthews Conclusion ~ Dave O'Brien and Peter Matthews.
This article presents the application of the online (Internet) ‘hacking’ concept to community lif... more This article presents the application of the online (Internet) ‘hacking’ concept to community life and processes from two hypothetical contexts: First, it was hypothesised that technology could be ‘hacked’ into by disadvantaged communities to create a digital public art. Second, the community-generated digital art platform could in turn be used to ‘hack’ into images and memories to facilitate the sharing of conversations and identity, social engagement, and digital inclusion among residents. The article therefore presents how these contexts of the characteristics and practicality of online ‘hacking’ inspired the design and functionality of a community digital artwork in a disadvantage urban estate in Edinburgh, UK. In addition, the article considers the implication of the ‘hacking’ practices by and among disadvantaged communities for realizing the social action, social engagement and networked society goals of the UK Government’s ‘Big Society’ policy. This is significant because the...
Modern Folk Devils: Contemporary Constructions of Evil, 2022
The debate about who is to blame for the labelling of asylum seekers as folk devils in the West c... more The debate about who is to blame for the labelling of asylum seekers as folk devils in the West continues to animate scholars in forced migration (for instance, Leudar et al. 2008; Sales 2007; Zetter 2007). This chapter is intended to engage in this debate. It does so by critically reviewing policies and news reporting in the UK that circulate and sustain the labelling of asylum seekers as folk devils, and the moral panics around asylum in the past quarter century. The chapter further draws from qualitative interviews to consider asylum seekers’ views about who is to blame for the moral panics, and asylum seekers’ preferred forms of representation. It considers that both news media and policymaking
is to blame for the representation and explores how refugees’ preferences of identity construction are at odds with the mediatized and politicized asylum seeker folk devil representation.