This research projects investigates how urban governance, processes of urban institutionalization as well as spatial transformation are being shaped by the protracted presence and intervention of international humanitarian actors. The research setting is Gulu town in Northern Uganda, which has often been referred to as Uganda’s ‘aid town’. Through the process of violent conflict and state abandon, humanitarian actors have become major actors in the urban economy, processes of urban governance and urban planning. This research investigates the effects of protracted humanitarian urbanism as well as the effects of processes of donor-withdrawal from Northern Uganda. 

• Funded by: VLIR-UOS
•  Staff involved: Karen Büscher