ABSTRACT
Economic growth, rapid urbanization, and new ways of life changed the strong rural orientation of most inhabitants of Kenya. To understand stratification and inequality, it is useful to study how sociocultures remain and new patterns of life emerge. This contribution uses the approach outlined in the theoretical chapters of this volume against the background of empirical research in Nairobi to identify social ontologies in contemporary Kenya. The foci of this chapter are notions of collectivity and individuality in a rapidly changing environment. In Nairobi, we encounter a multiplicity of possibilities regarding how individuals balance collective affiliations and individual aims in their lives. This chapter discusses the individually negotiated relations between collective affiliations (extended family, rural communities, ethnic groups) and individual aspirations (personal advancement, career strategies, the nuclear family) as social ontology in contemporary Kenya. The text combines Randall Collins’ Interaction Ritual Chains (2005) and Emíle Durkheim’s Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1995 [1992]) to examine specific forms of collectivity and individuality in different social milieus. For a nuanced understanding, the chapter presents a typology of different lifestyle groups (social milieus) in the middle-income stratum of Nairobi, and considers how they balance collective expectations and individual wishes.
