Mats Utas
Cluster Leader
Associate professor
Researcher at NAI since 2004
Subject areas
Political informality, network analysis, conflict, war, rebel movements and militia, youth, ex-combatants, gender, media, election violence, African cities, urban informality, poverty, alternative forms of governance, transnational businessmen.
Geographical areas
West Africa: Sierra Leone, Liberia
Horn of Africa: Somalia
Contact:
mats.utas@nai.uu.se
Tel: +46 18 56 22 32 (direct)
Research Projects
Academic background
Mats Utas is Associate Professor in Cultural Anthropology at the Nordic Africa Institute as well as the Head of the Africa Programme at the Swedish National Defence College. He has worked as a lecturer in social and cultural anthropology at University of Liberia and Stockholm University, and as senior lecturer in sociology at Fourah Bay College (University of Sierra Leone). Utas has written extensively on child and youth combatants, politics and economy of informality, contested sovereignties, media, refugees and gender in conflict and war zones. He has also researched street life, informality, and alternative forms of organization in urban centers. Utas has conducted fieldwork in Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast and Somalia. He is the editor of the forthcoming African conflicts and informal power: Big Men and Networks (Zed Books February 2012), the co-editor (with Henrik Vigh and Catrine Christiansen) of Navigating youth - generating adulthood: social becoming in an African context (the Nordic Africa Institute 2006) as well as of numerous articles in journals and edited books. He is currently researching three interrelated subjects: urban poverty and street life; former mid-level commanders and their roles as brokers in postwars; and election related violence. All three projects have a focus on West Africa.
Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
Jew-Man Business: economy of the street
A new documentary from Freetown Sierra Leone.
Read more about the film and watch a trailer here.
Focus on gender and SSR in discussion on post-conflict societies
Gender and Security Sector Reform were discussed in a recent workshop attended by researchers, policymakers and practitioners. It was concluded that there is a need for more contextualized data, not the least on community security concerns and gender relations within security institutions.
Read more about the workshop.
Pentagon street corner
Short film from the Pentagon street corner in downtown Freetown. The film is shot by the researcher and is a tribute to the Pentagon youth.
Civili Rule
Short film from the Civili festival (2005-2008). Masked societies are colorful urban phenomena in Sierra Leone. Activities of Civili goes far beyond festivities only.
Movies on the war in Sierra Leone
Read Mats Utas commentaries on Hollywood's Blood Diamond (pdf) and FESPACO 2007 winner Ezra (pdf) (texts in Swedish only).