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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."
| Preface | p. vii |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Practicing Citizenship in Imperial Paris | p. 44 |
| Developing Bushmen: Building Civil(ized) Society in the Kalahari and Beyond | p. 72 |
| Civil Society and Its Presuppositions: Lessons from Uganda | p. 104 |
| Colonial Constructions: Historicizing Debates on Civil Society in Africa | p. 124 |
| Staging Politisi: The Dialogics of Publicity and Secrecy in Sierra Leone | p. 160 |
| Civil Lives: Leadership and Accomplishment in Botswana | p. 192 |
| Debating Muslims, Disputed Practices: Struggles for the Realization of an Alternative Moral Order in Niger | p. 219 |
| Curl Up and Dye: Civil Society and the Fashion-Minded Citizen | p. 251 |
| IBB = 419: Nigerian Democracy and the Politics of Illusion | p. 267 |
| List of Contributors | p. 309 |
| Index | p. 311 |
| Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved. |
ISBN: 9780226114149
ISBN-10: 0226114147
Audience:
Professional
Format:
Paperback
Language:
English
Number Of Pages: 336
Published: 1st January 1999
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
Country of Publication: US
Dimensions (cm): 22.8 x 15.2
x 1.88
Weight (kg): 0.45
Edition Number: 2
