under construction

NEW PUBLICATION


RESUMES BY AUTHORS

Andersen, Louise (2007) 'Democratic governance in post-conflict Liberia- An interview with Dr. Amos Sawyer' in DIIS Working Paper no 2007:20, October 2007, available online here

Resume: This Working Paper contains an interview with Dr. Amos Sawyer - one of the persons most knowledgeable on Liberian politics and society. Dr. Sawyer presents himself as a Scholar-Activist who is driven equally by the curiosity to understand what is happening and the passion to do something about it. It is from this perspective he speaks on the current situation in Liberia and shares his view on the ongoing post-conflict state-building process. Dr. Sawyer’s main claim is that a system of ‘polycentric governance’ is better suited to the social and political realities in Africa’s fragile states than the imposed system of unitary sovereignty, which has failed so con-spicuously in Liberia and elsewhere. He discusses the international community’s approach to state-building and argues that it is in need of serious rethinking. If the post-conflict order is to be both democratic and sustainable, it must be built from the ground up drawing on internal capabilities and local knowledge. Not on international blue-prints. The ongoing attempts at re-establishing law and order mainly through a strong central government entail a risk of reproducing the basic structural problems that have characterized the Liberian state since its creation.

Hahonou, Eric (coming soon)'La décentralisation et l’émergence des catégories sociales d’origine servile au Bénin et au Niger' (working title) in African Trajectories of Slavery edited by B. Rossi

Abstract: The present article propose to explore in a comparative perspective the political emergence of slaves descendants in the context of recent decentralisation reforms’ implementation in Niger (municipal elections held in 2004) and Benin (municipal elections in 2002-2003). It is based on anthropological data collected in three municipalities in Western Niger (Gorouol, Bankilaré) and Northern Benin (Kalalé) between 2003 and 2006. In these localities decentralisation has offered an opportunity for former slaves or dependants to take a historical revenge on their former masters. While the songhay aristocracy has been able to maintain political control over their dependants, slaves descendants of Twareg and Fulani societies of have taken the direction of municipal power. The author shows that associative forms of organisation have played a central role in the collective consciousness of individuals (leaders and followers) from these latter communities, long stayed apart from political representation, provision of public services (formal education, alphabetisation, water supply, health services…) and development. However beyond identity discourses in order to access to municipal power, it seems that former dependants or slaves do not offer new modalities or reforms of the daily local governance.

Jones, Ben (2007) ‘The Teso insurgency remembered: churches, burials and propriety,' in Africa 77(4)

Resume:Over the past decade or so there have been a number of developments in the institutional landscape of the Teso region of eastern Uganda. These developments have taken place in the wake of a violent insurgency. Lasting from 1986 to 1993, it is remembered as a time of disorder, when life in the region was turned upside-down. There was a breakdown in the conventions and daily rituals that governed life at the local level. Rebels targeted and killed older men, usually from the same locality. These men were buried in disrespectful ways and the insurgency signalled a retreat inwards, away from the usual forms of sociality and reciprocity. Many of the changes that have taken place in the region since then have dealt with the memory of the insurgency. Life, both public and private, has increasingly emphasized displays of propriety. Most obvious among the changes was the growth of Pentecostal Christianity. Pentecostal church buildings, usually grass-thatched structures with mud walls and floors, could be found in most Teso villages, alongside older Catholic and Anglican churches. Pentecostalism differed from these earlier versions of Christianity, with a greater focus on healing and spiritual transformation, and with a greater space for innovation and entrepreneurship. Those who had become ‘born again’ were expected to adopt new rules and behaviours…ref. http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/africa_the_journal_of_the_international_african_institute/v077/77.4jones.pdf

Rasmussen, Louise N (in press 2008). ‘As a man this is how you should behave!’ - A critical look into methods of ‘developing men’ as a means of HIV/AIDS prevention in Sub-Saharan Africa’ in ‘Political Perspectives’, Special issue ‘New Perspectives on Africa’.

Resume:In recent years, targeting men in HIV/AIDS prevention has been promoted as a promising solution for preventing the spread of HIV. The reasons for targeting men revolve around how the sexual behaviour and attitudes of men are key drivers of the epidemic, and that empowering women is not sufficient to change men’s behaviours and attitudes. It is therefore considered crucial to involve men in the fight against risky sexual practices. Constructing men as both the problem of and the solution to AIDS seems to suggest that in order to significantly address problematic sexual practices men have to use their power differently. Building on extensive research on two HIV/AIDS preventions programmes in Uganda the paper demonstrates that both programmes are based upon a form of knowledge about ‘Ugandan culture’, which uncritically assumes that all Ugandan men are in a dominant position within their households. Hence, the key concern with targeting men in these programmes becomes a question of teaching Ugandan men how to practice their authority as men ‘properly’. Overall, the paper argues that these two particular practices of HIV/AIDS prevention contribute to reproduce stereotypical ideas about African men as the ones in control and that reproducing such gendered stereotypes may help to naturalise unequal gender relations in Sub-Saharan Africa.

READING NOTES

> « Children, childhoods and childhood studies », American Anthropologist, volume 109, number 2, june 2007 : 241-306
Read by Elise Guillermet

The issue of June 2007 of the American Anthropologist offer a special point on Anthropology of childhood. Composed by synthesis about the constitution of this field and precisely about the paradigme annonced in 90’ and cases studies which illustrate its theoretical and methodological postulates :

Composition of the focus point : 6 papers
Myra Bluebond-Langner & Jill E. Korbin, « challenges and opportunities in the Anthropology of Childhoods : an introduction to « children, childhoods and childhood studies » : 241-246, introduces debates :
-Children and youth are social actors, with their own perceptions and agency on social reality. How can we considerer their points of view?
Robert A . Levine, « Ethnographic Studies of Childhood : a historical overview » : 247-260, proposes an historical synthesis ethnographical approach of childhood during the XXth century, with a rich bibliography. Allison James, « Giving voices to Children’s voice : practices and problems, potfalls and potentials » : 261-272, presents with nuances and reflexivity how considering children(s voices.
-The variability of vulnerability of children is constructed. Factors which influence this construction are political, social and historical.
The last three texts (David F. Lancy, « Accounting for Variability in Mother-Child Play » : 273-284, Christina Toren, « Sunday Lunch in Fiji : Continuity and transformation in ideas of the household » : 285-295, David M.Rosen, “International Humanitarian Law and the Globalization of Childhood”: 296-306) give some examples of this variability.
-What should be the position of the anthropologist who is working on an object which is also a preoccupation for politics and especially for defenders of universal rights?
David M. Rosen’s text illustrates this question. Specialist of juridical anthropology, he analyses the case of child soldiers in Sierra Leone, protected by international laws but responsible in their society.

Informations about authors
-American Anthropologist is published by American Anthropological Association
-Myra Bluebond-Langner is professor associated of anthropology and researcher of the Center for Children and Childhood Studies, in Rutgers University, Camden, USA. She founded the collection Book Series Childhood Studies which publishes results of multidisciplinarity researchs about the point of view of children about their society
- Jill E. Korbin is professor of Anthropology in Case Western Reserve University, USA. She is codirector of the Shubert Center for Child Studies et de the Childhood Studies Program.
- Robert A. Levine is professor in Anthropology, Education and human developement in Harvard University.
-Allison James is Professor of Sociology in Sheffield University, in the Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth. She participated in debates about new paradigms of anthropology of childhood. Read her bibliography
- David F. Lancy is professor of Anthropology in the State University of Utah.
- Christina Toren is professor in Brunel University, West London.
- David M. Rosen is professor in Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, USA.

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