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'We Are the Real Men': Masculinity, Poverty, Health, and Community

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'We Are the Real Men': Masculinity, Poverty, Health, and Community View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Göteborgs universitets publikationer - e-publicering och e-arkiv ‘We are the real men’: Masculinity, poverty, health, and community development in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya Chimaraoke O. Izugbara i Skriftserien 2015 Department of Social Work University of Gothenburg Sweden © 2015 Chimaraoke Izugbara Cover image: Photo courtesy of Richard Mwangi ISBN: 978-91-86796-97-6 ISSN: 1401-5781 ii Table of Content Dedication................................................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………………………………… v Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. vi Summary in Swedish………………………………………………………………………………………vii List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………………………...viii Chapter 1: Study Background……………………………………………………………………………... 1 1.0: Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………. 1 1.1: Situating my interest in gender, health, and development among poor urban Kenyan men………..1 1.2: Kenya: a socio-political and economic history…………………………………………………...........4 1.3: Nairobi: The founding, growth, and slumization of a capital city …………………………..……….6 Chapter 2: Study problem, objectives and background literature…………………………………….. 10 2.0: Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………... 10 2.1: Research problem…………………………………………………………………………………….. 10 2.2: Study Objectives…………………………………………………………………………………........ 12 2.3: Literature review……………………………………………………………………………………... 12 2.4: Essentialist and socialization perspectives on the origin of masculinity ……………………………13 2.5. Social constructionism……………………………………………………………………………….. 14 2.5.1: Examples of scholarly research on the social construction of masculinity………………………..16 2.5.2: Social constructionist research on masculinity in Kenya………………………………………….20 2.6: Hegemonic and compensatory masculinity …………………………………………………….........23 2.7: Masculinity and poverty ………………………………………………………………………...........28 2.8: Masculinity and health……………………………………………………………………………….. 29 2.9: Masculinity and community development…………………………………………………………...31 2.10: Theoretical Framework ………………………………………………………………………..........31 Chapter 3: Methods and Material...………………………………………………………………………34 3.0: Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………...34 3.1: Epistemological reflections……………………………………………………………………………34 3.2: Study sites.............................................................................................................................................. 34 3.3: Data collection methods ………………………………………………………………………………35 3.4: Focus group and individual interviews……………………………………………………………... 35 3.5: Getting it all to make sense: Data analysis …………………………………………………………. 36 3.6: Positionality, gaining entry and fieldwork experience ……………………………………….……. 37 Chapter Four: Masculinity in the slums of Nairobi: Further reflections……………………….…......41 4.0: Introduction ……………………………………………………………………. ……………………41 4.1: Hegemonic and compensatory masculinity ………………………………………………………….41 4.2: Breadwinnerhood strategies ………………………………………………………………………….43 4.3: Alternative masculinities ………………………………………………………………….…….……45 4.4: Masculinity and health……………………………………………………………………………...... 47 4.5: Masculinity and community development …………………………………………………….…….49 Chapter Five: Summary, conclusions, and abstracts……………………………………………….……52 5.0: Summary and conclusions…………………………………………………………………………….52 5.1: Abstracts of published papers included in the dissertation………………………………………….55 References………………………………………………………………………………………………......58 iii Dedication For Frank & Elizabeth Izugbara (my parents) for emphasizing education and teaching me hard work, honesty, and forthrightness and Professor Emeritus Göran Bondjers (Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden). He knows why! iv Acknowledgements Several people and institutions supported my study at the University of Gothenburg as well as my research in Kenya. My supervisors, Professor Karin Barron and Dr. Ronny Tikkanen, deserve special commendations for their commitment, support, patience, and understanding. Their profound insights and theoretical depth elevated the quality of my work. I cannot sufficiently thank Drs. Lena Sawyer and Jari Kuosmanen for both their friendship and for selflessly reading my thesis several times over, offering critical advice and constructive comments. I owe heaps of gratitude to Professors Göran Bondjers, Peter Dellgran, and Staffan Höjer for facilitating my admission into the University of Gothenburg, and to Professor Kristian Daneback for his understanding, support, and flexibility, which enabled me to timeously graduate. I am also grateful to my fellow PhD students at the Department of Social Work, especially Julia Bahner, for their support and encouragement. For ensuring that my intellectual journey at the University of Gothenburg was hassle-free and that I did not miss important news and opportunities (often in Swedish), I remain indebted to Ingegerd Franzon. I am also grateful to Emma Bergstedt and Annelie Hyllner, both of Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, for their selfless support. My record thankfulness goes to the Ford Foundation, East Africa Office, for funding the Slum Masculinities Project, which yielded data for this dissertation. I also appreciate Professor Beth Maina Ahlberg (Upsalla University), Marie Johansson, and Eva Wilmer for their deep interest in my research and scholarship. The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, provided me resources to travel to and stay in Sweden for my PhD studies. Special thanks go to my wife and kids for enduring my seemingly endless absence from home, long workdays, and inadequate attention to the home front. My boss, Alex Ezeh, Executive Director, APHRC, Kenya is appreciated for permitting me to pursue a second PhD. v Abstract This thesis, comprising a five-chapter comprehensive summary (kappa) and four published papers, presents findings of a study that addressed Nairobi’s poor men’s (a) constructions and performance of masculinity (b); views of masculinity vis-à-vis their personal health and wellbeing, and (c) portrayals of the implications of masculinity for the development and progress of their community. The study was conducted in Korogocho and Viwandani slums in Nairobi, Kenya between 2009 and 2012, using qualitative research methods, including ethnography, in- depth individual interviews, and focus group discussions. The study was guided by critical masculinity theory as exemplified in the works of Connell, Messerschmitt and other social constructivists and queer theorists who view masculinity, and indeed gender, as socially-produced and fluid dynamics that derive their meanings within specific social contexts. Emerging evidence highlights breadwinnerhood as the common denominator in local discourses surrounding ‘properly masculine’ men in the slums of Nairobi. Narratives constituted poverty as both a challenge to masculine identity as well as a promoter of ‘true’ manliness, defined mainly in terms of persistent pursuit of providerhood in the face of poverty. Further, although it was largely out of their reach, poor men celebrated and clung doggedly to the ideal of provider-masculinity, pursuing it through a variety of remarkable and, sometimes, contradictory strategies. It also emerged that the while men recognized the complicated cultural origin of poor health, they stressed on gender and masculinity in particular, and everyday livelihood situations in general, as critical for their health and wellbeing. With respect to community development, men’s cognizance of the structural and contextual constraints to the development of their communities intersected with both a feeling that they have helped to hamper community development and an adamant sense of their own criticality and centrality in ensuring it. Poor men also generally hinged community development and progress on traditional masculinity scripts, often negatively depicting community development activities that seek to promote gender equality. The study concludes as follows: First, work with men must build on the ways they articulate and understand the issues that they face in their everyday life. Further, interventions with poor men must pay mind to the diverse ways poverty and a sense of masculine deficit can motivate their performance of themselves as men. Lastly, the process of making men allies in the global struggle for gender equality and an inclusive social system must start with supporting them to enjoy improved livelihoods and comprehend the beliefs and social forces that motivate their everyday behaviors. vi List of Figures Figure 1: Map of Kenya, 2012 …………………………………………………………………….6 Figure 1: Map of Nairobi, 2012……………………………………………………………………..8 vii Chapter 1: Study Background 1.0: Introduction This study, which comprises five comprehensive summary chapters (kappa) and four published papers, aims to answer the following key questions: How do poor men in Nairobi City construct and perform masculinity? What does it mean to be a poor man in Nairobi where material wealth and provisioning capacity are locally-prized dimensions of masculinity but also difficult to achieve or attain? How are the implications of poverty for masculinity constituted and performed by economically-marginalized urban men? How do poor urban men in Nairobi construct masculinity in relation to their individual health and wellbeing and the progress and development of their
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