Chris Dann

Graduate Student Research Funding | 2023 - 2024 Academic Year

Compliance and Development: Evidence from Rwanda's Umuganda

How exactly do post-conflict societies develop cohesive bonds amongst citizens and encourage voluntary compliance with the state? The project studies the Rwandan policy of umuganda, a Kinyarwanda term for "coming together in common purpose". On the last Saturday of every month, all capable citizens must engage in mandatory nationwide community service work, ranging from cleaning streets to building local infrastructure. In-depth ethnographic knowledge of the policy via fieldwork and interviews is pursued to understand the drivers of compliance and the potential knock-on effects for building public and interpersonal trust.

Chris Dann, Department of  Political Science

Dann is a second-year PhD student in Political Science, specializing in comparative politics and the political economy of development. Before commencing graduate studies, he worked as a pre-doctoral fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE) for two years for economist Professor Sir Tim Besley. He also completed his undergraduate studies at LSE, in addition to a Master's degree at Oxford University. His current research interests lie in studying the global distribution of trust, both interpersonally and institutionally, and the potential knock-on effects this has for compliance with public policies and development outcomes. As a British national, Dann has not only lived in the UK but also grew up in Cyprus and Hong Kong.

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