‘Jobless corner campus’: an institutionalised idleness in Kibera, an informal settlement in Nairobi

ABSTRACT

The article analyses the so-called institutional idleness observed taking place in Kibera, one of the largest informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya. The study analyses the notion of idling – a stigmatic term that is internalised by the residents and follows the inhabitants’ reaction to the stigmatisation. Among the internalisation, another form of reaction to the stigmatisation has been identified, characterised by the involvement of the idleness in organisations formed by the residents. Such behaviour has been observed as being accompanied by a certain level of playfulness and irony resulting in what I term institutionalised idleness – a form of non-violent subversive resistance to the authoritative and disciplinary narratives of official institutions of the post-colonial state in Africa. Moreover, the study presents a spatial dimension of institutionalised idleness, allowing the residents of Kibera to secure their informal leisure spaces in the public space of the city, and to therefore challenge the normative thinking about urban living and perceptions of free time. The institutionalised idleness thus represents a strategy providing the inhabitants of informal settlements with wider recognition, however, without losing their safe space within the community.

KEYWORDS:

• Idleness
• subversive resistance
• territorial stigmatisation
• informal settlements
• Kibera

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This paper is the result of Metropolitan University Prague research project no. E79-91 funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports from the Funds for Support of Specific Research.

Notes on contributors

Martin Páv

Martin Páv is a Ph.D. student at Metropolitan University Prague and a documentary filmmaker whose films have been screened and awarded at various international film festivals. His main research interests include urban informality and postcolonial theories. Since 2016, he has been conducting long-term ethnographic research in Kibera, one of the largest informal settlements in Nairobi. In addition to Nairobi, he has conducted research in informal settlements in New Delhi and Mumbai. He has also been involved in several research activities in the Czech Republic, focusing on homeless people during the Covid-19 pandemic in Prague, as well as marginalized Romani communities in Northern Bohemia.