Auch in einer Welt der Zirkulation, in der dieselben Dinge und Ideen bis in die letzten Winkel vordringen, gleichen sich die Lebensverhaltnisse nicht notwendig einander an. DEnn an den konkreten Orten, an die sie gelangen, werden diese Dinge und Ideen umgearbeitet und neu erfunden, in kreativen Prozessen, den jeweils bestehenden Vorstellungen und Wunschen gemaSS. Kurt Beck hat wesentlich dazu beigetragen, dass diese Einsicht in das Wesen globaler Vernetzung zum ethnologischen Stand der Dinge wurde. MIt Hilfe dreier fur sein wissenschaftliches Arbeiten zentraler Zugange - Korper, Technik, Wissen untersucht der vorliegende Band die kreative Gestaltung einer sich immer im Wandel befindlichen Welt, zumeist am Beispiel Afrikas.
The market places and street corners of Dar es Salaam are home to a thriving informal economy of street vendors selling secondhand clothing and other goods. These street vendors often live a precarious existence, under pressure from state authorities and international markets. In addition to these external pressures, the experiences of such vendors are also shaped by a complex interplay of internal tensions, rivalries and conflicting communal ties. Such internal dynamics are a common part of informal economies around the world, but have largely gone unrecognised and unexamined by academic scholarship. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and extensive interviews with vendors living and working in Dar es Salaam, Malefakis's book offers a nuanced portrait of those trying to carve out a livelihood in a major African city, one in which ties of kinship and ethnicity are often viewed as a barrier, rather than an aid, to success. In the process, Malefakis provides an invaluable new perspective on the way in which co-operation, or lack thereof, functions in an informal economy, as well as insight into the lived experiences of those who depend on such economies.
The study investigates how the current Islamist regime in Sudan influences the Zakat Chamber to control the Zakat collection and distribution. It argues that these reforms are founded on the extension of fiqh sources introducing modern interpretations of Zakat and based on the prioritization between the Zakat categories according to their definition of 'the public interest'. Thus, the Zakat Chamber funds service projects such as water services for the poor. The study is the first in-depth empirical research on the politics of the Zakat Chamber in Sudan. It gives a novel understanding of internal dynamics of the state and civil society in Sudan.
"Justice Arthur presents a wealth of intriguing material, an impressive thick description of the conflict and a thorough analysis of the many, very complex factors that contribute to the conflict. His work on the multiple dimensions of the conflict is knowledgeable, comprehensive and plausible and it clearly shows that the so-called religious conflicts are never about `religion' only." - Prof. Dr. Eva Spies (University of Bayreuth, Germany). "Justice A. Arthur has laid out a multidisciplinary, multi-perspective and long-term analysis of the clashes on the noise ban in Accra. The chapters are convincingly set up in order to manage the complexity of approaches, covering religious studies, theology, mission studies as well as anthropology, legal and political studies." - Prof. Andreas Heuser (University of Basel, Switzerland).
On a quest to satisfy the need for acoustic documentation of pronunciation norms of Standard Kenyan English, there were predominant deviations which identify users of Ethnically Marked Varieties of Kenyan English. The study documents findings on tenets of Ethnic Markedness by two groups that revealed maximally distinct pronunciation. Data collection and analysis encompassed systematic recording, annotation and acoustic scrutiny. Moreover, attitudes that other Kenyans hold toward the selected varieties are exposed. The study is a primary source in the genres of World Englishes, speech science, prosody and interlanguage pronunciation.
"The study investigates how Muslim religious specialists (fuqarâ, sing. fakî) acquire Qur'anic knowledge in the context of the 'communities of practice'. It contextualises the Qur'anic schools of Jebel Marra in the Sudan arguing that the fuqarâ increase their access to knowledge of the Qur'an by socially interacting with each other. The book is grounded in a[n] ethnographic study of Qur'anic memorisation and activities that the fuqarâ perform after graduation from Qur'anic schools. It thus provides a fresh perspective to Islamic learning and epistemology. 'The great value of the study lies in the author's reconstruction of the practices and techniques, cognitive and corporeal, which are systematically employed to memorise the whole of the Qur'an.'"--Page 4 of cover.
Investigations of what increasing digital connectivity and the digitalization of the economy mean for people and places at the world's economic margins. Within the last decade, more than one billion people became new Internet users. Once, digital connectivity was confined to economically prosperous parts of the world; now Internet users make up a majority of the world's population. In this book, contributors from a range of disciplines and locations investigate the impact of increased digital connectivity on people and places at the world's economic margins. Does the advent of a digitalized economy mean that those in economic peripheries can transcend spatial, organizational, social, and political constraints—or do digital tools and techniques tend to reinforce existing inequalities? The contributors present a diverse set of case studies, reporting on digitalization in countries ranging from Chile to Kenya to the Philippines, and develop a broad range of theoretical positions. They consider, among other things, data-driven disintermediation, women's economic empowerment and gendered power relations, digital humanitarianism and philanthropic capitalism, the spread of innovation hubs, and two cases of the reversal of core and periphery in digital innovation. Contributors Niels Beerepoot, Ryan Burns, Jenna Burrell, Julie Yujie Chen, Peter Dannenberg, Uwe Deichmann, Jonathan Donner, Christopher Foster, Mark Graham, Nicolas Friederici, Hernan Galperin, Catrihel Greppi, Anita Gurumurthy, Isis Hjorth, Lilly Irani, Molly Jackman, Calestous Juma, Dorothea Kleine, Madlen Krone, Vili Lehdonvirta, Chris Locke, Silvia Masiero, Hannah McCarrick,Deepak K. Mishra, Bitange Ndemo, Jorien Oprins, Elisa Oreglia, Stefan Ouma, Robert Pepper, Jack Linchuan Qiu, Julian Stenmanns, Tim Unwin, Julia Verne, Timothy Waema
This book introduces readers to the anthropology of urban life in Africa, showing what ethnography can teach us about African city dwellers’ own notions, practices, and reflections. Social anthropologists have studied city life in Africa since the early 20th century. Their works have addressed a number of questions that are relevant until today: What happens to rural people who move to the city? What kinds of livelihoods do they pursue? How does city life affect moralities and practices connected with gender roles, marriage, parenthood, and intergenerational relations? In which social situations are ethnic and other collective identifications relevant? How do people make a home in the city? What forms of authority and leadership become relevant in urban governance? How do people talk about city life? This book asks what anthropologists have come to learn about Africans’ views on city life. It provides a critical acclaim of ethnographies in English, French, and German and elucidates anthropology’s contribution to understanding city life in Africa. It highlights the significance of female, African and Diaspora scholars for an emerging urban anthropology of Africa. The chapters are organized according to everyday activities of city dwellers: moving, connecting, governing, working, dwelling, and wayfinding. The book will be an essential read for students and researchers of social anthropology, African and urban studies, but also for professionals in research and development organizations, thinktanks, and other institutions concerned with urban Africa.
The contributions of this volume discuss the broad field of transformation processes in Muslim societies from different perspectives with various disciplinary approaches. Apart from methodological questions the authors investigate religious and social developments in Africa and the Near and Middle East while focusing e.g. on the production of meaning, negotiation of religious values and spaces, gendered agency, and debates of identity.
