States of Emergency: Citizenship in Times of Crisis in Sierra Leone

The proposed research project develops work on the association of security and development priorities, by exploring how a heavily militarised response to the outbreak of Ebola has influenced experiences of citizenship amongst socio-economically marginal youth in Sierra Leone. Drawing on a variety of disciplines, from medical anthropology to security studies and political sociology, this study will probe into the nature of state-society relation in times of 'crisis'. In so doing it will analyse both normative definitions of citizenship created through emergency policy interventions and the everyday negotiations and contestations of citizenship by marginal urban youth living in a constant state of emergency.

The Ebola outbreak that has overwhelmed West Africa since 2014 came only a decade after the end of a devastating civil war in Sierra Leone. The cyclical nature of crisis has been linked to structural fragilities, including weak institutions unable to gain the trust of large populations living in poverty. This has made Sierra Leone emblematic of the increasing trend in international development policy that treats poverty reduction as a security priority aimed at mitigating threats to national and international stability. Young people living in urban slum areas have been especially affected by the increasing depiction of poverty as a security risk. First, as they were identified as potential recruits in rebel armies, and secondly as they were seen as vessels of disease during an Ebola outbreak characterised by urban contagion. Young people's recent experiences of a militarised Ebola response thus offer a fascinating entry-point into the study of how crisis creates citizens in a developing country.

While much has been written on the processes whereby security and development priorities have become intertwined, much less is known about how these dynamics impact target populations. This study will thus explore how the securitisation of poverty influences definitions, negotiations and experiences of citizenship in Sierra Leone. This means firstly understanding how the proclamation of states of emergency influences normative definitions of citizenship. Secondly, it means exploring how living under emergency shapes how citizens relate to their sovereign authority and how they negotiate their position in a fragile political community. Methodologically, the study will firstly involve collecting and analysing grey literature from a multitude of agencies involved in the Ebola response in Sierra Leone to tease out policy narratives around citizenship during the outbreak. Secondly, it will entail three months of ethnographic fieldwork amongst young residents of the Magazine Wharf slum area of Freetown, a neighbourhood particularly badly hit by the epidemic. Through interviews, life histories and participant observation, the study will explore young people's everyday interactions with state institutions and their resulting definitions, negotiations and expectations of citizenship.

This research builds on my previous extensive work in Sierra Leone, firstly on young people's post-war political mobilisation and later on community experiences of an Ebola vaccine trial, working as a participant observer with marginal urban youth. This work thus further develops my interest in how high-level policy discourses and development interventions actually impact the everyday lives of marginalised populations in developing countries.

The Ebola outbreak offers a very current case study of a broader phenomenon whereby security concerns have become increasingly central to all areas of policy making: from migration policy to poverty eradication and global disease control. The findings from this research are thus likely to be of interest to a broad audience and they will be able to influence public debates from two points of view. Firstly, in terms of assessing the outcomes of using security concerns to justify policy interventions in the developing world. Secondly, through contribution to the post-Ebola reconstruction process in West Africa and ongoing reflections on lessons learned from the outbreak.

Various strategies will be used to maximise the potential impact of this research by contributing to these important conversations. Key stakeholders will include: policy-makers in the area of security, disease prevention and citizen engagement in the UK; policy-makers and implementers working in Sierra Leone; and Sierra Leonean youth organisations. Firstly, I will build on my networks with organisations such as International Alert, Oxfam and DFID. Stakeholders will be engaged through the production of regular policy briefs to be disseminated to each organisation, and I will also offer presentations of my research findings at in-house policy events. By offering reflections on the consequences of securitisation on citizens in contexts of crisis, the research will be able to inform interventions in such contexts, in particular given the increasing concern with social mobilisation in the midst of medical emergencies.

In April 2018 I also will return to Sierra Leone to share my research findings through two events: a focus group with the young people who took part in the research process together with prominent youth leaders and one with practitioners working in Sierra Leone on the post-Ebola reconstruction process. These will build on the strong networks I have developed over the years through my doctoral work and as a social scientist on an Ebola vaccine trial, with youth activists, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Ministry of Health and Sanitation officials and country offices of international organisations such as Oxfam and Goal Ireland. The research findings will be able to inform conversations on the country's reconstruction process, and in particular to direct attention towards the restructuring of state-society relations and avenues for building trust in institutions.

A third avenue of impact will be the establishment of practitioner-academic networks. This will be achieved in two ways. Firstly, I intend to establish a network of practitioners and academics working in West Africa in the post-Ebola reconstruction process to discuss community engagement and the rebuilding of trust in institutions. This will expand on the Sierra Leone Research Network, which I helped to develop in 2012 and will entail setting up online forums for discussion, creating an email listserve to link people working on similar issues and supporting the organisation of networking events. These events will stimulate collaborations amongst academics working in different fields as well as encouraging the making of policy informed by sound social science research. Secondly, at the end of the research process I will organise a larger conference, bringing together academics and practitioners to discuss the implications of the securitisation of development policy across different contexts. This conference will allow me to discuss my research findings effectively across disciplines and to consolidate links and networking opportunities with practitioners and academics across different fields to inform new policy approaches in crisis contexts.