Vol. 33 No. 4 (2024): NJAS Special Issue: Becoming (Un)Equal in Age: Seniority and Superiority in African Societies
Special Issue: Becoming (Un)Equal in Age: Seniority and Superiority in African Societies

Training as a Rite of Passage: Kenyan Geothermal Professionals Gaining Seniority in Iceland

PDF
Julia Caroline Wummel
University of Cologne
Bio
DOI: https://doi.org/10.53228/njas.v33i4.1141

Published 2024-12-19

Keywords

  • solidarity,
  • symbolic capital,
  • gender,
  • age discrimination,
  • geothermal

How to Cite

Wummel, J. C. (2024). Training as a Rite of Passage: Kenyan Geothermal Professionals Gaining Seniority in Iceland. Nordic Journal of African Studies, 33(4), 431–447. https://doi.org/10.53228/njas.v33i4.1141

Copyright (c) 2024 Julia Caroline Wummel

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Following the transformative journey of Kenyan geothermal professionals throughout a training programme in Iceland and back to their homes, I argue that such long-term training in foreign countries can function as a rite of passage. The collective experience of the geothermal training programme as a liminal space forges an egalitarian peer group, regardless of the members’ biological age or usual workplace position. Simultaneously, it provides the opportunity to gain both social and cultural capital, which raises the professional status of the participants and, thereby, their seniority. The trainees become a tight-knit community of practice, so much so that they may support each other even years after they have come back to their regular jobs in their home country. At the same time, the members become part of a bigger, prestigious geothermal ‘family’ of international experts. This expert community exchanges knowledge and support globally and provides distinction to its members. Thus, attending this course goes beyond being taught geothermal skills and scientific knowledge. Attendees become legitimate actors of professional expertise that are more powerful than those who have not yet been exposed to the training. The Icelandic training programme ‘makes’ experts and can thus be seen as a rite of passage, providing a more senior status to initiates that can even mitigate age and gender discrimination to some extent.

PDF

References

  1. Alber, Erdmute, Sjaak van der Geest, and Susan R. Whyte. 2008. “Generational Connections and Conflicts in Africa: An Introduction.” In Generations in Africa: Connections and Conflicts, edited by Erdmute Alber, Sjaak van der Geest, and Susan R Whyte, 1–23. Münster: LIT Verlag.
  2. Anderson, David M. 2002. Eroding the Commons: The Politics of Ecology in Baringo, Kenya, 1890s–1963. Oxford: James Currey.
  3. Axelsson, Gudni, Ingimar G. Haraldsson, Málfrídur Ómarsdóttir, and Vigdís Hardardóttir. 2023. “GRÓ Geothermal Training Programme in Iceland: Geothermal Capacity Building in Developing Countries for 45 years.” Paper presented at World Geothermal Congress 2023, Beijing, China, April 17 – 21, 2023.
  4. Baker, Paul M., and G. Gray Eaton. 1992. “Seniority Versus Age as Causes of Dominance in Social Groups: Macaques and Men.” Small Group Research 23 (3): 322–343.
  5. Bollig, Michael, and Matthias Österle. 2013. “The Political Ecology of Specialisation and Diversification: Long-term Dynamics of Pastoralism in East Pokot District, Kenya.” In Pastoralism in Africa: Past, Present and Future, edited by Michael Bollig, Michael Schnegg, and Hans-Peter Wotzka, 289–315. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books.
  6. Bollig, Michael, Clemens Greiner, and Matthias Österle. 2014. “Inscribing Identity and Agency on the Landscape: Of Pathways, Places, and the Transition of the Public Sphere in East Pokot, Kenya.” African Studies Review 57 (3): 55–78.
  7. Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
  8. Bourdieu, Pierre. 1986. “The Forms of Capital.” In Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, edited by J. Richardson, 15–29. Westport: Greenwood.
  9. Bradbury, Robert E. 1973. Benin Studies, edited by Peter Morton-Williams. London: Routledge.
  10. Cariaga, Carlo. 2024. “ThinkGeoEnergy’s Top 10 Geothermal Countries 2023 – Power Generation Capacity.” ThinkGeoEnergy, 08/01/2024. Accessed February 15, 2024. https://www.thinkgeoenergy.com/thinkgeoenergys-top-10-geothermal-countries-2023-power-generation-capacity/.
  11. Clifford, James. 1997. Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. Harvard University Press.
  12. Crewe, Emma, and Elizabeth Harrison. 1998. Whose Development? An Ethnography of Aid. Zed Books.
  13. Curry, Marnie W. 2016. “Will You Stand for Me? Authentic Carino and Transformative Rites of Passage in an Urban High School.” American Educational Research Journal 53 (4): 883–918.
  14. Evans-Pritchard, Edward Evan. 1937. Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  15. Field, Sean. 2021. “Power and Precariousness in the Expert Hierarchies of the US Hydrocarbon Industry.” Critique of Anthropology 41 (3): 303–319.
  16. Georgsson, Lúdvík S. 2012. “Geothermal Training for Africans: The Operations of the UNU-GTP in Iceland and Africa and Possible Future Development.” Paper presented at 4th African Rift Geothermal Conference, Nairobi, Kenya, 21-23 November 2012.
  17. Georgsson, Lúdvík S. 2018. “Forty Years of Geothermal Training in Iceland – History, Status and Future Direction.” Paper presented at 40th Anniversary Workshop of the United Nations University Geothermal Training Programme: Organized by UNU-GTP, Reykjavík, Iceland, 26 April 2018.
  18. Georgsson, Lúdvík S. 2020. “UNU Geothermal Training Programme 1979-2019: The Legacy in Africa.” Paper presented at 8th African Rift Geothermal Conference, Nairobi, Kenya, 2-8 November 2020.
  19. Georgsson, Lúdvík S., Ingimar G. Haraldsson, and Málfrídur Ómarsdóttir. 2021. “UNU Geothermal Training Programme in Iceland: Sharing Geothermal Knowledge with Developing Countries for 41 Years.” Paper presented at World Geothermal Congress 2020+1, Reykjavik, Iceland, April – October 2021.
  20. Greiner, Clemens, and Michael Pröpper. 2016. “Hands, Skills, Materiality: Towards an Anthropology of Crafts.” In Migration – Networks – Skills: Anthropological Perspectives on Mobility and Transformation, edited by Astrid Wonneberger, Mijal Gandelsman-Trier, and Hauke Dorsch, 209–230. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.
  21. Greiner, Clemens, Britta Klagge, and Evelyn Atieno Owino. 2023. “The Political Ecology of Geothermal Development: Green Sacrifice Zones or Energy Landscapes of Value?” Energy Research & Social Science, 99.
  22. Greiner, Clemens. 2002. „Tippelei–Wandergesellen und reisende Handwerkerinnen.“ Ethnoscripts 4 (1): 29–40.
  23. GRÓ GTP. 2019. “UNU-GTP to Part Ways with UNU and to Join UNESCO.” GRO News, 26/09/2019. Accessed February 15, 2024.
  24. https://www.grocentre.is/gtp/media-gtp/news/unu-gtp-to-part-ways-with-unu-and-to-join-unesco
  25. GRÓ GTP. 2021. “New Host Institute for GRÓ GTP.” GRO News, 12/02/2021. Accessed February 15, 2024.
  26. https://www.grocentre.is/gtp/media-gtp/news/new-host-institute-for-gro-gtp
  27. GRÓ GTP. 2023. “Country Profile Kenya.” Kenya, no date. Accessed February 15, 2024. https://www.grocentre.is/gtp/moya/gro/index/countries/ke
  28. Haas, Jack. 1989. “The Process of Apprenticeship: Ritual Ordeal and the Adoption of a Cloak of Competence.” In Apprenticeship: From Theory to Method and Back Again, edited by Michael W. Coy, 87–113. Albany: State University of New York Press.
  29. Haugaard, Mark. 2003. “Reflections on Seven Ways of Creating Power.” European Journal of Social Theory 6: 87–113.
  30. Kohlrausch, Martin, and Helmut Trischler. 2014. Building Europe on Expertise: Innovators, Organizers, Networkers. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  31. Kwakye-Nuako, Kwasi. 2024. “A Preservation from Oral and Practiced Rites of Passage in an African Tradition: Towards a Search for Identity in a Changing World in the Written.” Journal of Black Religious Thought 2 (2): 122–139.
  32. Lienard, Pierre. 2016. “Age Grouping and Social Complexity.” Current Anthropology 57 (13): 105–117.
  33. Ljungman, Cecilia M., Goncalo Carneiro, Kristoffer Engstrand, and Juliet Newson. 2017. Evaluation of the UNU Programmes in Iceland - Final Report. Stockholm: NIRAS Indevelop
  34. Marcus, George E. 1995. “Ethnography in/of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography.” Annual Review of Anthropology 24: 95–117.
  35. Mason, Arthur. 2006. “Images of the Energy Future.” Environmental Research Letters 1 (1): 014002.
  36. Mason, Arthur. 2013. “Cartel Consciousness and Horizontal Integration in Energy Industry.” In Cultures of Energy: Power, Practices, Technologies, edited by Sarah Strauss, Stephanie Rupp, and Thomas Love, 123–144. London and New York: Routledge.
  37. Mason, Arthur. 2015. “Inside the Energy Salon: Installation and Illusions of Finality.” Journal of Business Anthropology 4 (1): 36–53.
  38. McLaren, Peter. 1999. Schooling as a Ritual Performance: Toward a Political Economy of Educational Symbols and Gestures. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
  39. Menashy, Francine. 2019. International Aid to Education: Power Dynamics in an Era of Partnership. New York and London: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.
  40. Mitchell, Timothy. 2002. Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-politics, Modernity. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
  41. Ómarsdóttir, Málfríður, Thecla M. Mutia, and Sylvia J. Malimo. 2021. “Assessing the Status of Women in Geothermal Development: A Comparative Study of Iceland and Kenya.” Paper presented at World Geothermal Congress 2020+1, Reykjavik, Iceland, April – October 2021.
  42. Omenda, Peter, Cornel Ofwona, Peketsa Mangi, and Chrispin Lupe. 2023. “Country Update Report for Kenya 2020–2022.” Paper presented at World Geothermal Congress 2023, Beijing, China, 9-11 October 2023.
  43. Pettigrew, Simone, Nicole Biagioni, Mike Daube, Sandra C. Jones, Tanya Chikritzhs, and Gary Kirby. 2015. “Understanding and Addressing the Schoolies Phenomenon.” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 39 (2): 135–140.
  44. Pretel, David, and Lino Camprubí, eds. 2018. Technology and Globalisation: Networks of Experts in World History. Palgrave Macmillan.
  45. Rogerson, Jayne M., and Devin Harmer. 2015. “A ‘Rite of Passage’ Youth Festival in South Africa: The Origins, Attendees and Organization of Matric Vac.” Nordic Journal of African Studies 24 (3&4): 221–240.
  46. Sidanius, Jim, and Felicia Pratto. 1999. Social Dominance: An Intergroup Theory of Social Hierarchy and Oppression. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  47. Turner, Victor. 1983. “Liminal to Liminoid, in Play, Flow, and Ritual: An Essay in Comparative Symbology.” In Play, Games and Sports in Cultural Contexts, edited by J. C. Harris and R. J Park, 123–164. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc.
  48. Turner, Victor. 1987. “Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites of Passage.” In Betwixt and Between: Patterns of Masculine and Feminine Initiation, edited by Louise Carus Mahdi, Steven Foster, and Meredith Little, 3–19. Chicago, IL: Open Court Publishing Company.
  49. van Gennep, Arnold. 1960. The Rites of Passage. Translated by Monika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffee. London: Routledge.
  50. Warfield-Coppock, Nsenga. 1992. “The Rites of Passage Movement: A Resurgence of African-Centered Practices for Socializing African American Youth.” Journal of Negro Education 61 (4), 471–482.
  51. Wenger, Etienne. 1998. Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  52. Wummel, Julia. 2024. “Gender in the Geothermal Sector: A Closer Look at Kenyan Women.” Paper presented at 10th African Rift Geothermal Conference, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 23-25 October 2024.