The Governance of Daily Life in Africa

The Governance of Daily Life in Africa

Author: Giorgio Blundo

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 9004171282

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Anchored in an empirically-grounded anthropology, this book explores the notion of governance in a non-normative way. It describes and analyses the institutional and political processes through which social actors and groups - be they state, private or 'third-sector' - contribute to the provision of public and collective goods or services. The book draws on case studies from Anglophone and Francophone Africa, crossing anthropological traditions that have too often evolved in parallel directions and dealing with a range of topics such as health, water supply, sanitation and waste management, security, humanitarian aid, land issues and decentralisation. Beyond African boundaries, it contributes to current debates about governmentality, public policy, subject making, public/private boundaries, and the role of the state.


Everyday Corruption and the State

Everyday Corruption and the State

Author: Giorgio Blundo

Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.

Published: 2013-04-04

Total Pages: 355

ISBN-13: 1848136641

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Daily life in Africa is governed by the 'petty' corruption of public officials in services such as health, transport, or the judicial system. This remarkable study of everyday corruption in three African countries investigates the reasons for its extraordinary prevalence. The authors construct an illuminating analytical framework around the various forms of corruption, the corruptive strategies public officials resort to, and how these forms and strategies have become embedded in daily administrative practices. They investigate the roots of the system in the growing inability of weakened states in Africa to either reward their employees adequately or to deliver expected services. They conclude that corruption in Africa today is qualitatively different from other parts of the world in its pervasiveness, its legitimations, and its huge impact on the nature of the state.


The Everyday State in Africa

The Everyday State in Africa

Author: Daniel Mulugeta

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-09-30

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 9781032174921

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This book offers a new understanding of the workings of the everyday Ethiopian state through analysis of the everyday politics of state-society relations.


Real Governance and Practical Norms in Sub-Saharan Africa

Real Governance and Practical Norms in Sub-Saharan Africa

Author: Tom De Herdt

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-05-15

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1317527739

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Although international development discourse considers the state as a crucial development actor, there remains a significant discrepancy between the official norms of the state and public services and the actual practices of political elites and civil servants. This text interrogates the variety of ways in which state policies and legal norms have been translated into the set of practical norms which make up real governance in sub-Saharan Africa. It argues that the concept of practical norms is an appropriate tool for an ethnographic investigation of public bureaucracies, interactions between civil servants and users, and the daily functioning of the state in Africa. It demonstrates that practical norms are usually different from official norms, complementing, bypassing and even contradicting them. In addition, it explores the positive and negative effects of different aspects of this ‘real governance’. This text will be of key interest to academics, students and researchers in the fields of development, political science, anthropology and development studies, African studies, international comparative studies, implementation studies, and public policy.


Democracy in Ghana

Democracy in Ghana

Author: Jeffrey W. Paller

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-03-07

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 1316513300

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A detailed account of politics in Ghana's urban neighborhoods, providing a new way to understand African democracy and development.


States at Work

States at Work

Author: Thomas Bierschenk

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2014-01-30

Total Pages: 454

ISBN-13: 9004264965

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States at Work explores the mundane practices of state-making in Africa by focussing on the daily functioning of public services and the practices of civil servants.


Democracy, Good Governance and Development in Africa

Democracy, Good Governance and Development in Africa

Author: Mawere, Munyaradzi

Publisher: Langaa RPCIG

Published: 2015-10-24

Total Pages: 422

ISBN-13: 9956763004

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Questions surrounding democracy, governance, and development especially in the view of Africa have provoked acrimonious debates in the past few years. It remains a perennial question why some decades after political independence in Africa the continent continues experiencing bad governance, lagging behind socioeconomically, and its democracy questionable. We admit that a plethora of theories and reasons, including iniquitous and malicious ones, have been conjured in an attempt to explain and answer the questions as to why Africa seems to be lagging behind other continents in issues pertaining to good governance, democracy and socio-economic development. Yet, none of the theories and reasons proffered so far seems to have provided enduring solutions to Africa’s diverse complex problems and predicaments. This book dissects and critically examines the matrix of Africa’s multifaceted problems on governance, democracy and development in an attempt to proffer enduring solutions to the continent’s long-standing political and socio-economic dilemmas and setbacks.


Governance and the postcolony

Governance and the postcolony

Author: David Everatt

Publisher: Wits University Press

Published: 2019-08-01

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 1776143442

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Civil society, NGOs, governments, and multilateral institutions all repeatedly call for improved or ‘good’ governance – yet they seem to speak past one another. Governance is in danger of losing all meaning precisely because it means many things to different people in varied locations This is especially true in sub-Saharan Africa. Here, the postcolony takes many forms, reflecting the imperial project with painful accuracy. Offering a set of multidisciplinary analyses of governance in different sectors (crisis management, water, food security, universities), in different locales across sub-Saharan Africa, and from different theoretical approaches (network to adversarial network governance); this volume makes a useful addition to the growing debates on ‘how to govern’. It steers away from offering a ‘correct’ definition of governance, or from promoting a particular position on postcoloniality. It gives no neat conclusion, but invites readers to draw their own conclusions based on these differing approaches to and analyses of governance in the postcolony. As a robust, critical assessment of power and accountability in the sub-Saharan context, Governance and the Postcolony: Views from Africa brings together topical case studies that will be a valuable resource for those working in the field of African international relations, public policy, public management and administration.


Participation of Young People in Governance Processes in Africa

Participation of Young People in Governance Processes in Africa

Author: Kurebwa, Jeffrey

Publisher: IGI Global

Published: 2019-06-28

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 152259390X

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Active political engagement requires the youth of today to begin their journeys now to be leaders of tomorrow. Young individuals are instrumental in providing valuable insight into issues locally as well as on a national and international level. Participation of Young People in Governance Processes in Africa examines the role of young peoples’ involvement in governance processes in Africa and demonstrates how they are engaging in active citizenship. There is an intrinsic value in upholding their right to participate in decisions that affect their daily lives and their communities, and the content within this publication supports this by focusing on topics such as good citizenship, youth empowerment, democratic awareness, political climate, and socio-economic development. It is designed for researchers, academics, policymakers, government officials, and professionals whose interests center on the engagement of youth in active citizenship roles.


Disrupting Africa

Disrupting Africa

Author: Olufunmilayo B. Arewa

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-07-29

Total Pages: 665

ISBN-13: 1009064223

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In the digital era, many African countries sit at the crossroads of a potential future that will be shaped by digital-era technologies with existing laws and institutions constructed under conditions of colonial and post-colonial authoritarian rule. In Disrupting Africa, Olufunmilayo B. Arewa examines this intersection and shows how it encompasses existing and new zones of contestation based on ethnicity, religion, region, age, and other sources of division. Arewa highlights specific collisions between the old and the new, including in the 2020 #EndSARS protests in Nigeria, which involved young people engaging with varied digital era technologies who provoked a violent response from rulers threatened by the prospect of political change. In this groundbreaking work, Arewa demonstrates how lawmaking and legal processes during and after colonialism continue to frame contexts in which digital technologies are created, implemented, regulated, and used in Africa today.