Social Networks and Survival of Campus Students in Makindye Division

ABSTRACT The study was conducted to explore the importance of social networks and survival of campus students in Makindye division. This was after the realisation that the liberalisation of education in the 1 990s and the rapid urbanisation of Kampala City had left tens of thousands of the city residents in squalid conditions where abject and absolute poverty rule with services going mainly to paying clients following the withdrawal of the state as the principal actor. The study specifically sought to achieve the following objectives: to establish the basis for formation of social networks among students in Makindye division; and to explore the role of social networks in the survival of campus students in Makindye division. To achieve the stated objectives, the study was guided by the following research questions: what is the basis for formation of social networks among campus students in Makindye division? What is the role of social networks in the survival of campus students in Makindye division? The study design took the form of a case study of social networks and survival of campus students in Makindye division. The study also involved purposive sampling in which the data sought were qualitative. A sample of 40 respondents was purposively selected for the study. These included 10 female students, 10 male students, five local leaders and 15 university lecturers. The data were collected using interviews and observations for primary data and documents analysis for secondary data. The analysis of the data generated by the interviews and observations involved a phenomenological approach by emphasising a deep understanding of the observed phenomena and views of the participants, literal description and narration of the emerging issues out of which authentic conclusions were made. During the interviews and observations, the researcher noted down in his diary the relevant issues (episodes, situations, events or instances) for accurate reporting. The main themes that emerged from the field notes and interviews were noted down, quoting extensively in verbatim format.The study established that social networks are formed based on a multiple of factors that included geographical proximity, social clubs, shared schooling, work place, kinship, religion, shared values, attitudes, culture, social status, aspirations and marriage alliances. The study also found out that social networks are important in the survival of the urban poor by creating links and nodes that enable such people to access food, water, employment, medication, shelter, transport and even marry or and attend functions such as burial, marriage and initiation ceremonies even without cash. The study recommends for an inter-sectoral and participatory planning and the mobilisation of the less privileged into programs aimed at improving their welfare from the grass root. The study also recommends the need for empowerment projects for the youths and women that do not require huge sums of initial capital. Subsidised resources from NGOs, financial institutions and the government can be channelled to the youths and women associations to enable them to embark on activities that make them more productive and less destitute. The study concludes by noting that the survival of the urban poor by social networks is a reflection of a multiple of the socio-economic problems of Kampala City (e.g., destitution, poverty, rapid urbanisation, unemployment, informalisation of the economy and failure to expand the formal sector). As a result, communities have taken their own initiatives to survive so as alleviate poverty and destitution and to create opportunities. Further, the survival of the urban poor by social networks will continue as long as the state ceases to be the main actor in the generation of opportunities and welfare service provision. This of course follows government withdrawal as the major actor following the liberalisation of the economy in the late 1 980s and early l990s.