Legitimation as Political Practice

Kathy Dodworth is a Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Edinburgh's Centre for African Studies. Her current fellowship critically re-examines contemporary community health work in Kenya (2021-25). Her doctoral thesis on legitimation practices in Tanzania was awarded the University of Edinburgh's School of Social and Political Science Outstanding Thesis Award in 2018. She has published in African Affairs, Ethnography, Critical African Studies, Health and the Journal of Social Policy. Her African Affairs article won the British International Studies Association Postgraduate Prize in 2015. Prior to academia, she worked within a number of health and education international non-governmental organisations.

Foreword; Preface and acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Introduction: Practicing legitimation; 1. Legitimacy and legitimation: Broadening the landscape; 2. Practicing the 'how' of legitimation; 3. 'We go deeper': Extensity and territoriality as practice; 4. 'In and out': Working the state in Tanzania; 5. 'I was chosen, it's the work that's voluntary': Negotiating voluntarism in Tanzania; 6. 'These people, they just sit!': Representing coastal 'others'; 7. 'Reporting has all sorts of issues!': The global ecosystem of information; Conclusion: Legitimation as practice: Everyday authority in Tanzania; Appendix A: Interviews; Glossary; References.