Eli Scott

Graduate Student Research Funding | 2022 - 2023 Academic Year

Assessing the Influence of Rural Values, Identity, and Consciousness in South Africa

How “sticky” are cultural values, identities, and group consciousness when an individual migrates from a rural area to an urban area in South Africa? In previous work, Scott has provided preliminary evidence using existing Afrobarometer surveys showing that cultural values differ across the urban/rural divide and that such “rural values” have political salience in urban areas. This project examines the extent to which rural identities and consciousness exist more generally and whether they travel with rural-to-urban migrants into urban areas. Exploratory interviews will inform a later survey of rural-to-urban migrants in an informal settlement in Johannesburg.

Eli Scott, Department of Political Science

Eli Scott is a second-year PhD student comparative politics at Stanford University. Scott studies the urban/rural divide in social identity and political behavior in the colonial and contemporary period in Southern Africa. He has previously worked with the Justice Defenders in Kenya and the Legal Resources Center in South Africa. Scott is a graduate of the University of Georgia.

Return to past recipients of graduate student research funding