Critical Perspectives on African Politics

Critical Perspectives on African Politics PDF Author: Clive Gabay
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317686136
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 196

Book Description
Strong states and strong civil societies are now increasingly hailed as the twin drivers of a ‘rising Africa’. Current attempts to support growth and democracy are part of a longer history of promoting projects of disciplinary, regulatory and liberal rule and values beyond ‘the West’. Yet this is not simply Western domination of a passive continent. Such an interpretation misses out on the complexities and nuances of the politics of state-building and civil society promotion, and the central role of African agency. Drawing upon critical theory, including postcolonial and governmentality approaches, this book interrogates international practices of state-building and civil society support in Africa. It seeks to develop a theoretically informed critical approach to discourses and interventions such as those associated with broadly ‘Western’ initiatives in Africa. In doing so, the book highlights the power relations, inequalities, coercion and violence that are deeply implicated within contemporary international interventions on the African continent. Providing a range of empirical cases and theoretical approaches, the chapters are united by their critical treatment of political dynamics in Africa. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of African politics, development studies, postcolonial theory, International Relations, international political economy and peacekeeping/making.

Civil Society and the Political Imagination in Africa

Civil Society and the Political Imagination in Africa PDF Author: John L. Comaroff
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226114149
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
The essays in this important new collection explore the diverse, unexpected, and controversial ways in which the idea of civil society has recently entered into populist politics and public debate throughout Africa. In a substantial introduction, anthropologists Jean and John Comaroff offer a critical theoretical analysis of the nature and deployment of the concept—and the current debates surrounding it. Building on this framework, the contributors investigate the "problem" of civil society across their regions of expertise, which cover the continent. Drawing creatively on one another's work, they examine the impact of colonial ideology, postcoloniality, and development practice on discourses of civility, the workings of everyday politics, the construction of new modes of selfhood, and the pursuit of moral community. Incisive and original, the book shows how struggles over civil society in Africa reveal much about larger historical forces in the post-Cold War era. It also makes a strong case for the contribution of historical anthropology to contemporary discourses on the rise of a "new world order."

Civil Society and Democracy in Africa

Civil Society and Democracy in Africa PDF Author: Nelson Kasfir
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136323112
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 179

Book Description
This work critically reviews the conventional uses of the concept of civil society in promoting democratization in Africa and suggests omissions and modifications are needed for more accurate analyses.

Critical Perspectives on African Genocide

Critical Perspectives on African Genocide PDF Author: Alfred Frankowski
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538150018
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 139

Book Description
Genocide has become a part of the contemporary global expression of political violence. After all, every continent has had its genocide, but genocide in Africa and the African diaspora is distinctly different from those in Europe or the West. This text approaches genocide from within the context of Africa and the African diaspora to examine political and philosophical after-effects of global colonialism. As genocidal state violence has become prominent through colonialism, its appearance in Europe and the West have developed sharply against how it appears in colonized spaces within the African diaspora. This text argues that such a difference in orientation is needed to develop new concepts, critical approaches, and perspectives on the intersections between colonialism, political violence, and anti-black politics as a way of critically understanding global genocide and the presence of continual genocidal violence.

Language and Politics in Africa

Language and Politics in Africa PDF Author: John Obiero Ogone
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527551555
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 520

Book Description
Language and Politics in Africa is a fine collection of both empirically and theoretically based articles from across the African continent and beyond, but all focusing on the twin issues of Language and Politics in post colonial African countries. The authors offer critical perspectives on contemporary theoretical, empirical and policy issues related to language and how such issues manifest themselves at the inevitable interface with politics in a number of African countries. Coming at a time when most African countries are still grappling with language policy and planning issues while others are increasingly having to contend with the political outcomes of linguistically and ethnically heterogeneous nation-states, the present volume is a must read for scholars and students who are interested on the twin issues of language and politics since it represents one of the first attempts at documenting how language and politics affect each other in a number of African countries. The volume is divided into two sections dealing with the politics of language and the language of politics in African countries.

Cameroon

Cameroon PDF Author: Jean-Germain Gros
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cameroon
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Book Description
Annotation "By its geography and diversity Cameroon has been called ""Africa's Crossroads."" Without a doubt, the vibrancy of Cameroon society and the richness of its culture attest to the merit of the moniker. Less remarkable has been Cameroon's attempt to democratize"

A Discourse on African Philosophy

A Discourse on African Philosophy PDF Author: Christian B. N. Gade
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498512267
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 121

Book Description
This book explores the influence of ubuntu on South Africa’s post-apartheid transitional justice mechanism, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), and—in contrast to ethnophilosophy—takes differences, historical developments, and social contexts seriously.

Critical Perspectives in Politics and Socio-Economic Development in Ghana

Critical Perspectives in Politics and Socio-Economic Development in Ghana PDF Author: Wisdom J. Tettey
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004130135
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 486

Book Description
This volume provides a comprehensive and integrated analysis of contemporary Ghanaian politics and economy and their relationship to culture. It combines rich, recent, empirical material with sophisticated theoretical analyses, bringing fresh and unique interdisciplinary perspectives to bear on the issues examined.

The New South Africa at Twenty

The New South Africa at Twenty PDF Author: Peter C. J. Vale
Publisher: University of Kwazulu Natal Press
ISBN: 9781869142896
Category : Culture
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
In this book, some of South Africa's finest academic minds reflect on 20 years of democratic rule in the country. How far have South Africans really come? Is race still an entrenched issue in the country? Why does gender discrimination continue? Why are the poor in revolt? Is free expression under threat? What happened to South African Marxism? What drives Julius Malema? How have the unions experienced the post-apartheid years? These (and many other) questions are examined. Analytical and accessible, the book continues a long tradition of engaging South Africa's politics and society in a non-partisan, but critical, fashion. It opens the way for innate explanations and provides insights that lie beyond the workaday accounts usually offered by pundits. [Subject: Sociology, African Studies, Politics]

African American Perspectives on Political Science

African American Perspectives on Political Science PDF Author: Wilbur Rich
Publisher: Temple University Press
ISBN: 1592131093
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 457

Book Description
Race matters in both national and international politics. Starting from this perspective, African American Perspectives on Political Science presents original essays from leading African American political scientists. Collectively, they evaluate the discipline, its subfields, the quality of race-related research, and omissions in the literature. They argue that because Americans do not fully understand the many-faceted issues of race in politics in their own country, they find it difficult to comprehend ethnic and racial disputes in other countries as well. In addition, partly because there are so few African Americans in the field, political science faces a danger of unconscious insularity in methodology and outlook. Contributors argue that the discipline needs multiple perspectives to prevent it from developing blind spots. Taken as a whole, these essays argue with great urgency that African American political scientists have a unique opportunity and a special responsibility to rethink the canon, the norms, and the directions of the discipline.