Open AccessON WAITING WILLFULLY IN URBAN UGANDA: Toward an Anthropology of Pace
Author(s) -
EISENSTEIN ANNA
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
cultural anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.669
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1548-1360
pISSN - 0886-7356
DOI - 10.14506/ca36.3.09
Subject(s) - pace , situated , agency (philosophy) , sociology , gender studies , geography , social science , geodesy , artificial intelligence , computer science
ABSTRACT Women in Uganda strategically time their entry into married motherhood in relation to others with whom they want to be connected. Although much of the burgeoning literature on “waithood” laments global youth's delayed entry into social adulthood, I show that women in urban Uganda intentionally pause, slowing down their movement through the life course to cultivate networks of interdependence that will propel them not only forward through the life course but also upward socioeconomically. The logics and practices by which they pace themselves point beyond a neoliberal conception of time and agency, instead highlighting the heightened importance of divine connections and social coordination under increasingly capitalist and urban conditions. The lens of pace helps bring into view the situated, multilayered, relational projects of moving through life with others.