Working the System in Sub-Saharan Africa : Global Values, National Citizenship and Local Politics in Historical Perspective

What is the extent to which democracy, good governance, liberal citizenship and development are negotiated and shaped in sub-Saharan African countries in the context of the ‘globalised world’? Is this a characteristic of the current historical era alone? Do global ideas about politics and development in sub-Saharan Africa take on new meanings in light of local circumstances and visions? The works presented in this volume offer context-based analyses that contribute to showing how local practices of citizenship, democracy and development in sub-Saharan Africa have been ‘working the system’ of global ideas on good governance policies and development, and how this ‘system’ also builds on the way in which, historically, local narratives are presented to actors in the international context. Democracy and good governance are considered the universally shared paradigms shaping policy prescriptions and development practices in the context of the current ‘globalised’ world. Space for negotiating these recipes at the local level is considered to be particularly narrow, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, but it is also believed that international paradigms are reshaped into peculiar forms when implemented under local circumstances. From the early 1990s onwards, these processes have drawn the attention of academics, as well as the wider public, but rarely is their historical dimension taken into account: the Africa-world nexus in politics and development is not a characteristic of the current ‘global world’ alone, as is too often assumed. Adding an historical perspective to the analysis of the multilevel interconnections between local power relations, the politics of colonial and independent rule and the global discourses of democracy, citizenship and development will contribute to a sound theoretical stance in addressing what is considered the main feature of current times, globalisation and its flows. That is what this volume tries to accomplish. It does so by developing three themes in particular: the trajectory of the colonial and independent nation-state and its impact on the local and national politics of citizenship, identity and development; the way global ideas on development are converted into practice, or how they are interpreted and negotiated at local level; and issues of belonging and identity in relation to concepts and practices of political control. Case studies will include Portuguese colonialism, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Senegal (Casamance) and Uganda.

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