KategorienDateien
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Panel 01
No peace in sight?
Changing explanations and changing methods in research on Africa's wars
Convenors: Matthias Basedau (Hamburg), Andreas Mehler (Hamburg)
50 years after independence Africa is perceived as THE crisis continent. Wars (along with HIV, hunger and poverty) dramatically impact on the lives of Africans. In academia the last decades have seen a great variety of explanations for the persistence of war and violent conflict in Africa - between extensions of the Cold War ("proxy wars"), "poverty and conflict", "greed and grievance" and "failed states" (etc) while the topography of war changed: Southern Africa, once the scene of deadly conflict, gradually became the most peaceful sub-region and Central Africa appears today as the most unstable one. At the same time a number of academic and practice-oriented projects try to better identify sources of conflicts, define war types and detail numbers of casualties. They all are more or less controversial. The panel's ambition is twofold:
- confronting more qualitative with quantitative research on Africa's wars and looking for bridges between both.
- taking stock of new efforts to explain Africa's wars.
The panel convenors therefore invite papers emanating from established research centres as well as papers on innovative approaches to bridge existing gaps.
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Panel 02
Joint Panel: VAD & Afrikanistentag
From Slang to National Language?
Convenors: Rose Marie Beck (Frankfurt), Maarten Mous (Leiden)
In the last fifty years of African independence urbanisation and globalisation have led to the emergence of new urban linguistic varieties. They are based on ideals of multilingual speech and characterised by highly volatile lexica. Many of these varieties are transformed from a criminal slang to a youth language. Despite persistent devaluation through educationalists, traditionalists, language planners and the elites, slangs and argots have in some places expanded and transformed into urban varieties which feature prominently in popular culture and the media. This is the case for Nouchi (Abidjan), Tsotsitaal/Isicamtho (Johannesburg), Sheng (Nairobi), and others. These varieties have started to spread to various urban centres of a country: Sheng is spoken in Eldoret as well as in Kisumu, but only marginally in Mombasa; Camfranglais can be found in Douala and Yaounde, but not in the north of Cameroon. Some researchers have suggested that such erstwhile urban varieties have the potential to become de facto national languages. For example, the Dholuo of Kenya, who have always resisted speaking Swahili on the grounds of it being a colonial language, apparently have no reservations against speaking Sheng.
These observations lead to interesting questions: What makes a slang become an urban language in some contexts, but not in others? Why do some urban varieties expand throughout a country, but not necessarily to all of its regions? Which characteristics allow for an urban variety to be accepted nationwide? If we assume that these slang/urban varieties are locally interpreted as modern, egalitarian and subversive, projecting conflicting ideas of inclusion and exclusion, of ethnicity and urbanity, resistance and visibility: What does this mean for our understanding of the modern nation state?
With this panel we intend to initiate a critical discussion beyond the normative discourses of language planning and policing, educationalists and elites. Rather we invite a reflection which crosses the lines between sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, political science and anthropology.
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Panel 03
African Elite Generations
Convenor: Andrea Behrends
Independence from colonial rule starting in the late 1950s opened up new possibilities for African politicians, intellectuals, lawyers or doctors to take up positions in the senior civil service, as managers of companies, in the health system etc. which had formerly been occupied by the colonial rulers. Labelled as “the fortunate few” (Clignet and Foster 1966) because of their small number and the comparatively large quantity of newly opened positions after the departure of the colonizers, they raised expectations for future economic and social development in African states. However, subsequent generations not only had to struggle with economic decline, high corruption and political closure of access to more powerful positions; the increased numbers of highly educated and motivated candidates aspiring to fill a diminishing number of vacancies made professional success more competitive and thereby much harder to achieve than before.
The panel wants to address the pathways of elites in the last fifty years, their strategies of access to elite status and the possible closure of these pathways to new aspirants. To widen the perspective, the panel also encourages papers dealing with successful traders: how did they pass on their business and how do their successors cope with global economical changes? – or so-called traditional elites: how do more recent democratic pathways on the one hand and the consistency of civil war and dictatorship on the other hand influence traditional elites? In general, have elite groups been able to maintain their status over generations? And if yes, what were the (political and socio-economic) conditions for that? In which way did new elites come into being and how did these elites demonstrate their outstanding social position? The panel invites papers that look at the history and the trajectories of elite groups, the strategies of gaining or maintaining elite membership and the changing dynamics connected to African elites. The panel will be held in English.
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Panel 04
Institutionen des Land-, Wasser- und Forstmanagements
zwischen staatlichem Zugriff, globaler Lenkung und lokalen Dynamiken
Panelleiter: Michael Bollig (Köln)
In den vergangenen 60 Jahren hat sich das Management von Land, Wasser und Forst in allen Staaten Afrikas grundlegend gewandelt. In einer spätkolonialen Phase der agrarischen Modernisierung wurden in zahlreichen Kolonien umfassend Brunnen gebohrt, landwirtschaftliche Betriebe technisiert und Besitz- und Zugangsrechte reformiert. Ziel der Modernisierungsmaßnahmen war eine rasche Erhöhung des agrarischen Ertrags einerseits und andererseits der Ausbau der cash-crop Produktion für den Weltmarkt (etwa im Bereich Baumwolle). Ebenfalls kennzeichnend für die Politik der 1950er Jahre war die Ausweisung von Schutzgebieten. Neben intensiv agrarisch genutzten Räumen sollten Gebiete gestellt werden, in denen angeblich vom Menschen unbeeinflusste Natur erhalten werden sollte. Gegenüber früheren Phasen des kolonialen Ressourcenmanagements wird die Bedeutung traditioneller Autoritäten in der Lenkung des Ressourcenmanagements reduziert und neue Nutzerkollektive (etwa Kooperativen, Farmervereine) werden eingeführt. Agrarexperten legen die Richtung der Entwicklung fest und geben institutionelle Formen des Ressourcenmanagements vor. Interessanterweise stellt die Unabhängigkeit afrikanischer Staaten zu Beginn der 1960er Jahre im Bereich der Land-, Wasser- und Forstpolitik häufig keinen deutlich erkennbaren Bruch dar. Offenbar bestimmen die Expertengruppen der Spätkolonialzeit auch in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren agrarische Entwicklungspolitiken weiter. In vielen Fällen wird die Politik der agrarischen Modernisierung noch verstärkt. Villagization, Agrarindustrialisierung, Aufbau von Agrarkooperativen aber auch die Privatisierung von Agrarflächen dominieren die Politiken für den ländlichen Raum. Die Programme und Konzepte großer internationaler Organisationen (etwa der Bretton Woods Organisationen) bestimmen deutlich die Entwicklung der nationalen Land-, Wasser- und Forstpolitiken. Auf lokaler Ebene spielen die Entstehung neuer Eliten, Arbeitsmigration und damit verbunden die zunehmende Abhängigkeit von off-farm Einkommen eine bedeutsame Rolle für die Dynamik von Institutionen des Land-, Wasser- und Forstmanagements. In den letzten beiden Dekaden werden vermehrt von staatlicher Seite aber auch durch internationale Organisationen Programme des s.g. community based natural resource management propagiert. Offenbar sollen so ältere, vermeintlich genuin afrikanische Traditionen des Ressourcenmanagements belebt werden. So spielen auch s.g. (neo)traditionelle Autoritäten wieder eine zunehmend bedeutsame Rolle in Programmen des Ressourcenmanagements.
Innerhalb des Panels soll an ausgewählten Beispielen der historische Wandel von Institutionen des Ressourcenmanagements dargestellt werden. Dabei sind vor allem Beiträge erwünscht, die institutionelle Dynamiken an gut beschriebenen Einzelfällen dokumentieren und die Aushandlung von Institutionen zwischen lokalen Dynamiken (z.B. Elitenbildung, ökonomischer Wandel, demographische Prozesse) und staatlichen Programmen darstellen.
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Panel 05
New states, new nations, and the politics of memory
Convenors: Anna-Maria Brandstetter (Mainz), Carola Lentz (Mainz)
The VAD conference of 2010 takes place in a year in which many African states celebrate their independence jubilees—a date that suggests itself to explore the politics of memory. Nation-building and state-making undoubtedly depend on the creation of a corps of ‘national’ bureaucrats and institutions, the construction of a material infrastructure that supports nation-wide communication, and the dissemination of schools and education. At the same time, it involves a symbolic dimension, namely, the creation of cultural emblems and symbols as well as the (re)writing of ‘national’ history. It is these processes of creating a national ‘imaginary’ and the politics of memory involved in nation-building that stand at the centre of attention of this panel.
Politics of memory involve a wide range of issues. On the one hand, the collective memory is informed by official history as it is depicted in history books and museums, represented in national monuments or other ‘lieux de mémoire’, celebrated in national days as well as canon-ised and preserved in institutions such as national academies and historical commissions. On the other hand, popular, subaltern, and personal historical narratives create a broader commu-nicative memory that sometimes complements, and often contradicts the official politics of memory. Both aspects of memory politics form part of nation building. More generally, it is only through active collective memory politics, (re)constructing and (re)creating the past, that a society imagines itself as a unique nation, united beyond manifold internal differences and, at the same time, set apart from other nation-states or the former colonial powers. Yet the of-ten heated debates about what should be remembered or forgotten reveal the fault lines of the nation under construction.
We invite presentations that contribute towards a comparative perspective and address varia-tions in the politics of memory, including the making and unmaking of ethnic, racial, religious, political and socio-economic differences, and their role for nation-building in different African countries, exploring, for instance:
- strategies of referring to the pre-colonial and colonial past;
- ways of linking national and regional or ethnic identities (e.g. concepts of ‘unity in diver-sity’ versus ‘unity through homogeneity’);
- styles of communication and public debates on (national) history.
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Panel 06
50 years of post-colonial agriculture and agricultural policies
in Subsahara Africa – any lessons to be learned?
Convenor: Michael Brüntrup (Bonn)
50 years after the wave of independence in Sub Sahara Africa (SSA), agriculture is still the most important economic sector in most of its countries and will be so for a long time to come. Furthermore, two-thirds of manufacturing added value in most African countries is based on agricultural raw materials. Unfortunately, the state of African agriculture is notably bad as indicated by low and stagnating per capita yields, incomes in rural areas, agricultural exports and food security in rural areas as well as growing food import dependency. It seems that without major changes in agricultural policies the sector will not be able to fulfil its role.
The dominant economic position would be reason enough to devote highest attention to the state of agriculture in SSA. In addition, the state of agriculture in SSA and its future prospects have important social and political repercussions.
The proposed panel should shed more light on the experiences that can be extracted from the past 50 years of agricultural development and agricultural policies in SSA, and blend these experiences with future challenges and supposed opportunities. Particularly welcome are contributions that analyse
- main trends of production, productivity, factor use, export, imports and structural trends since independence, success stories, failures and lessons learned at sector or sub-sector level;
- the nexus between agriculture, poverty and food security, as well as political stability;
- the linkages between agriculture and natural resource management and degradation, past negligences and the need for new approaches for integrated approaches, with a special view on the challenges of climate change for SSA;
- lessons from structural adjustment for the potential and limits of Washington consensus oriented policies in agriculture;
- realistic roles for the state, the private sector and civil society in agricultural development and ways of their interactions;
- the potential and the weaknesses of the NEPAD’s CAADP programme, the most prominent attempt of Africa to regain ownership in this area, to relaunch agriculture.
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Panel 07
The working state in Africa – public services and public servants in action
Convenors: Jan Budniok , Sarah Fichtner (Mainz)
While academic interest has focused a lot on fragile and/or failing states in Africa, the day-to-day functioning of state institutions and public servants’ “being” and “doing” the state has received less attention. For this panel we invite presentations that discuss case studies of the working state. With this we refer to von Stein’s notion of administration as the embodiment of the working state which produces citizens, government announcements, building certificates, in some countries also roads and hospitals; it transforms children into pupils, criminals into prisoners, and men and women who fill out certain forms into married couples. On a more abstract level it produces public security, health, education, and development.
We invite contributions which analyse the working state from an institutional, actor, or historical perspective, or their combination. In view of the conference theme we are particularly interested in papers that deal with colonial legacies, continuities and transformations in African bureaucracies and public services in the last fifty years.
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Panel 08
Africa on the Move –
Migration and Migration Policies in Postcolonial Africa
Convenors: Bettina Conrad (Bayreuth), Nina von Nolting (Mainz)
Migration and flight are far from being recent phenomena – be it in Africa or elsewhere. Yet, it is also true that the number of African migrants has risen significantly since the 1960s. The root causes of these population movements have been divers: natural disasters, war, economic crises, population growth, marginalisation and exclusion pushed large numbers of people to seek survival or a better live away from their places of origin. Others left their homes volun-tary, attracted by job opportunities and better wages abroad; even if that meant living without any legal status.
Not surprisingly, in- and out-migration in its various shapes and forms, has therefore posed a huge challenge for most African states. The majority of African refugees, for instance, fled into neighbouring countries that were often inflicted with political, social and economic prob-lems themselves.
In the face of recent xenophobic attacks on and the expulsions of immigrants in some coun-tries, the question arises how the topic of migration has so far been tackled in African post-colonial politics and society. In how far have nation-building processes changed the attitude to and the treatment of immigrants in Africa? Are migrants seen as a threat to social cohesion and national integration, or rather as bearers and agents of development? In that context it would also be of interest to look at (historically grown) migration and refugee policies and the reasoning behind them.
We especially welcome (German or English language) papers that address the different forms of migration and their effects on society, and/or official migration and refugee policies in postcolonial Africa.
Das mobile Afrika –
Migration und Migrationspolitik seit der Unabhängigkeit
Panelleiterinnen: Bettina Conrad (Bayreuth), Nina von Nolting (Mainz)
Flucht und Migration sind auch in Afrika keine Phänomene der Moderne. Es ist aber nicht zu leugnen, dass die Zahl der afrikanischen Migranten seit 1960 kontinuierlich gestiegen ist. „Push-Faktoren“ wie Naturkatastrophen, Wirtschaftskrisen und Bevölkerungswachstum, aber auch gewaltsame Konflikte, Exklusion und Marginalisierung hatten große Migrationsbewe-gungen zur Folge. Zusätzlich führ(t)en „Pull-Faktoren“ (Arbeitskräftenachfrage, bessere Ver-dienstmöglichkeiten) in einigen Ländern zu einer freiwilligen, oft aber illegalen Zuwanderung von Arbeitsmigranten.
Die vielfältigen Migrationsrichtungen und -formen stellten in den vergangenen fünfzig Jahren eine große innen- und außenpolitische Herausforderung für die afrikanischen Staaten dar. So floh z.B. der größte Teil der afrikanischen Flüchtlinge in die angrenzenden Länder, die oft selbst mit politischen, sozialen oder wirtschaftlichen Krisen zu kämpfen hatten. Angesichts von Zwangsausweisungen und fremdenfeindlichen Angriffen auf Einwanderer stellt sich die Frage, wie Migration in der postkolonialen afrikanischen Politik und Gesellschaft thematisiert wird. Haben die Nationenbildungsprozesse den Umgang mit und die Einstellung zu Immig-ranten verändert? Werden Migranten als Bedrohung für soziale Kohäsion und nationale Integ-ration betrachtet oder doch als Träger und Mittler von Entwicklung? Von Interesse sind hier-bei auch (historisch gewachsene) Steuerungsbemühungen in der Flüchtlings- und Migrations-politik der jeweiligen Staaten und wie sie begründet werden.
Willkommen sind Beiträge in deutscher oder englischer Sprache, die sich mit verschiedenen Migrationsformen, ihren gesellschaftlichen Folgen und staatlichen Migrations- bzw. Flüch-tlingspolitiken im postkolonialen Afrika beschäftigen.
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Panel 09
Indépendance Cha Cha – Continuities, Transformations and Memories
of Euphoria in African Popular Music(s)
Convenors: Hauke Dorsch (Southampton), Nadine Siegert (Bayreuth)
Since the independence era popular music in Africa has undergone dramatic changes that vary in different countries and were influenced by artistic, political and economic developments on all levels from the local to the global. These transformations manifest themselves in the changing role of musicians in society, in the relationship between musicians and the national elites from praise-singers to oppositional voices, and in the establishment (and often subsequent abandonment) of a national musical infrastructure. The growing importance of international audiences, changing sources of income for musicians as well as varying influences of musicians’ voices are more examples for the transformations that take place. The last 50 years of artistic innovations, translations and borrowings are closely linked to technological developments as well as more general processes like decolonisation, urbanisation, nation-building, migration and the growth of global ‘mediascapes’. These changes notwithstanding, there are also examples of continuity and of nostalgic glances back to the musical styles and stars as icons of the independence era.
Borrowing its title from the famous song of Congolese stars Grand Kalle and African Jazz, this panel looks back at the euphoria of the independence era expressed in this tune and asks what remains of it today. We invite papers (either in English or German) that reflect on the continuities and transformations of African music since the independence era. Contributions may include discussions of the role of music and musicians in nation building, of the post-independence creation of national musical styles and the institutionalisation of national ensembles and festivals. They may focus on musicians’ support of, or opposition against, their respective governments, on reflections of independence in songs and unofficial ‘national anthems’. Papers may discuss the influences of Western audiences, World wide markets, travelling artists and changing forms of sustenance. Finally, papers on memories and imaginations of the independence era in today’s music are welcome.
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Panel 11
Dictatorship and Democracy in Historical Perspective
Convenors: Gero Erdmann (Hamburg), Alexander Stroh (Hamburg)
Following independence during the 1950s and 1960s and subsequent extensive change, very different types of political regimes have been established in Africa. Some of these regimes have already gained a high degree of stability and continuity. The question is, are there specific development paths for the various regime types? Can we identify pathways of lasting duration? What are the critical junctures for the later regime proliferation? For example, what have been the effects of early military coups on the present-day regimes? Have frequent regime changes from democracy to dictatorship and back had a positive or a negative effect on democratic development since the 1990s? Have former “semi-competitive” and stable one-party regimes facilitated the transition to stable liberal democracies? In short, can we identify particular factors and institutional sequences in the last 50 years that explain the existence of democratic, hybrid, and authoritarian regimes in Africa today?
Contributions to this panel should focus on the historical dimension, which, however, can also be critically addressed. For example, are some structural factors, such as the economic capacity of a country, more relevant than the historical evolution of political institutions? Are there particular conditions which favor a path-dependent explanation of regime development? Theoretically, methodologically as well as empirically orientated paper proposals are welcomed; they can comprise large-n comparisons as well as well-designed single-case studies.
Diktatur und Demokratie in historischer Perspektive
Panelleiter: Gero Erdmann (Hamburg), Alexander Stroh (Hamburg)
Seit der Unabhängigkeit in den 1950er und 1960er Jahren haben sich in Afrika über einen sehr wechselvollen Prozess ganz unterschiedlicher staatlicher Herrschaftsformen etabliert, die teilweise auch ein beträchtliches Maß an Kontinuität und Stabilität entwickelt haben. Damit stellt sich die Frage, inwieweit es für die unterschiedlichen Regimetypen charakteristische Entwicklungspfade gibt. Welche langfristigen Entwicklungslinien können identifiziert werden? Welche Schlüsselentscheidungen (critical junctures) hatten entscheidenden Einfluss auf die spätere Regimeentwicklung? Welche Auswirkungen hatten etwa frühe Militärputsche auf die die gegenwärtige Herrschaftsform? Haben häufige Regimewechsel zwischen Demokratie und Diktatur die demokratische Entwicklung seit den 1990er Jahren eher begünstigt oder erschwert? Haben ehemals „semikompetitive“ und stabile Einparteiregime den Übergang zu stabilen liberalen Demokratien erleichtert? Kurz: lassen sich über die letzten 50 Jahre hin bestimmte Faktoren und institutionelle Sequenzen identifizieren, die die gegenwärtige Existenz von demokratischen, hybriden und autoritären Regimen erklären können.
Beiträge zu diesem Panel sollen der historischen Perspektive besondere Beachtung schenken, diese aber auch kritisch hinterfragen. Dies kann auf theoretischer oder empirischer Ebene geschehen. Sind beispielsweise bestimmte strukturelle Faktoren, wie etwa die Wirtschaftskraft eines Landes, die allenfalls bedingt von endogenen historischen Pfaden abhängen doch wirkungsmächtiger? Unter welchen Bedingungen ist die Regimeentwicklung besonders gut mit Pfadabhängigkeit zu erklären? Theoretisch-methodische Papiervorschläge, Vergleiche mit größerer Fallzahl und methodisch fundierte Einzelfallstudien sind in diesem Panel gleichermaßen willkommen.
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Panel 12
Glimmering Utopias: 50 Years African Movie
Convenors: Ute Fendler (Bayreuth), Cassis Kilian (Mainz)
At the beginning of the year 2008 Cinémathèque française celebrated 50 years African movie with the event „Africamania“. The birthday cannot be dated precisely but only after independence was the emergence of an African film culture possible. Before, in the Francophone colonies African directors did not get permission to shoot movies due to the Décret Laval. „Décolonisez les écrans“ was therefore the motto of the avant-gardists of the African movie. The founding of the festival FESPACO in 1972 was an important step and the video productions was another important step in more recent times.
In spite of all technical, political and financial problems, numerous movies have been created since the independence in which the manifold processes of consolidation, differentiation and transformation show up which have been decisive for Africa.
Some controversies are like a golden thread through the history of African movie: the antagonism of town and country and the conflict of generations, above which the antagonism between tradition and modernism can be staged, the debates about polygamy, socialist ideas and ritual practices which can be mounted as conflicts within the family, as well as the antagonism between Africa and the rest of the world, that can be dealt with in movies on the topic migration.
The antagonism between desperation and the dream of a better life is almost always central and the visions of the future specific to a certain time can be traced at the diverse conceptions of the roles of youths – since the turn of the millennium single fighters try adventurous ways out of the Afro-pessimism.
We don’t want to see movies just as a back reference but also as a draft, for the glimmering fictions conserve and question African utopias. The focus therefore shall be on the question how these utopias have been dealt with during the 50 years of African movie making.
Flimmernde Utopien: 50 Jahre afrikanischer Film
Panelleiterinnen: Ute Fendler (Bayreuth), Cassis Kilian (Mainz)
Anfang des Jahres 2008 hat die Cinémathèque française mit der Veranstaltung „Africamania“ 50 Jahre afrikanischen Film gefeiert. Präzise lässt sich der Geburtstag zwar nicht datieren, doch erst nach der Unabhängigkeit war die Entstehung einer afrikanischen Filmkultur möglich. In den frankophonen Kolonien hatten afrikanische Regisseure zuvor aufgrund des Décret Laval keine Dreherlaubnis erhalten. „Décolonisez les écrans“ hieß daher die Devise der Avantgardisten des afrikanischen Films. Die Gründung des Festivals FESPACO im Jahre 1972 war dabei eine wichtige Etappe und die Videoproduktionen eine weitere in jüngster Zeit.
Trotz aller technischen, politischen und finanziellen Probleme sind seit der Unabhängigkeit zahlreiche Filme entstanden, in denen die vielfältigen Verdichtungs-, Differenzierungs- und Transformationsprozesse aufscheinen, die für Afrika bestimmend waren.
Einige Kontroversen ziehen sich wie ein roter Faden durch die Geschichte des afrikanischen Films: der Antagonismus von Stadt und Land und der Generationenkonflikt, über den sich der Antagonismus von Tradition und Moderne in Szene setzen lässt, die Debatten um Polygamie, sozialistische Ideen und rituelle Praktiken, die sich als innerfamiliäre Konflikte inszenieren lassen, sowie der Antagonismus von Afrika und der übrigen Welt, der sich mit Filmen zum Thema Migration verhandeln lässt.
Der Widerstreit der Hoffnungslosigkeit und des Traums vom besseren Leben ist fast immer zentral, und die zeitspezifischen Zukunftsvisionen lassen sich anhand der unterschiedlichen Konzeptionen von Rollen Jugendlicher verfolgen – seit der Jahrtausendwende erproben Einzelkämpfer abenteuerliche Wege aus dem Afro-Pessimismus.
Wir wollen Spielfilme nicht nur als Rückverweis betrachten, sondern auch als Entwurf, denn die flimmernden Fiktionen bewahren und hinterfragen auch afrikanische Utopien. Im Zentrum soll daher die Frage stehen, wie diese Utopien in den 50 Jahren afrikanischen Filmschaffens verhandelt worden sind und werden.
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Panel 13
Museums in Africa: from decolonization to (re-)invention
Convenors: Larissa Förster (Köln), Ciraj Rassool (Cape Town)
When African states finally gained independence, their museums, too, had to face new tasks and challenges. Those museums that had been established as part of the colonial enterprise had to re-define their mission and their audiences and confront the colonial origins and biases of their collections. Furthermore, old-established museums saw the rise of new partners and competitors: on a national, regional and local level new museums were founded by various emerging interest groups and with manifold interests and objectives in mind – be it national museums aimed at advancing nation-building, local museums set up as institutions of public culture / history and striving to present cultural heritage and transmit local knowledge, or museums engaged in community-development and often supported by foreign governments and foundations.
The panel seeks to explore and discuss the heterogeneous landscape of museums in Africa and pose questions about its emergence by looking at various dimensions. Therefore, the following questions will be asked:
- How have museums in Africa dealt with legacies of colonialism (in terms of architecture, collections, structure/mission)?
- How do they seek and manage to produce, preserve and present cultural heritage in an area of conflict between local/ethnic and national identity?
- How can the relationship between local and national museums be characterised?
- What shape does the collaboration with source communities and with envisaged audiences take?
- Which audience(s) do and can museums in Africa address?
- What types of network and which practices of cooperation exist among and between muse-ums of different types/genres?
- In what ways and to what extent do African museums collaborate (or are interested in col-laborating) with European museums that collect and exhibit objects of African origin? What role do issues of repatriation play? In what ways can new relationships be developed?
The panel aims at bringing together researchers, museologists, and museum practitioners who work in, with or on African museums.
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Panel 14
Urban life-worlds in motion
Convenors: Hans Peter Hahn (Frankfurt), Kristin Kastner (Frankfurt)
Fifty years after the end of the colonial era it seems to be more rewarding than ever to focus on new social developments that have taken place in the decades after independence. In contrast to the dominant impression of a century-long and still continuing adoption to European forms of organisation and lifestyles, an inversed tendency can be observed that shall be in the centre of this panel’s attention: It deals with the fact that urban lifestyles in Africa are characterized by an expansive moment articulated and recognized far beyond the borders of the continent. Urban societies in Africa are characterized by rapid growth and by the youth of the cities’ inhabitants. Urban centres particularly challenge the creativity of their inhabitants, leading to new strategies of livelihood, new lifestyles and the appropriation of new media technologies. These phenomena hold for African cities, marked by high mobility from rural to urban areas as well as between the cities on the continent, but also for European and US metropolises in which African migrant communities exist and where the change is based on individuals and groups participating in transnational networks.
In this panel we want to deal with their life-worlds in Africa and beyond. We shall look on how they occupy, change and even create urban spaces and in what ways the increasing informalization of certain economic sectors, often based on difficult legal situations in migratory contexts, influences city life also beyond the African continent.
Urbane Lebenswelten in Bewegung
Panelleiter: Hans Peter Hahn (Frankfurt), Kristin Kastner (Frankfurt)
Fünfzig Jahre nach dem Ende der Kolonialära ist es heute besonders wichtig, danach zu fragen, welche neuen gesellschaftlichen Entwicklungen die Jahrzehnte nach der Unabhängigkeit in Afrika gebracht haben. Gegen den mächtigen Eindruck einer Jahrhunderte langen und bis in die Gegenwart reichenden Kontinuität der Übernahme europäischer Formen von Organisation und Lebensstilen ist in bestimmten Bereichen eine Tendenz in die gegenläufige Richtung zu beobachten, die in diesem Panel thematisiert werden soll: Es geht um die Tatsache, daß städtische Lebensstile in Afrika ein expansives Moment aufweisen, das weit über die Grenzen des Kontinents hinaus artikuliert wird und immer mehr Aufmerksamkeit weckt. Urbane Gesellschaften in Afrika zeichnen sich durch ein schnelles Wachstum und das junge Alter der Stadtbewohner aus. Zugleich fordern die städtischen Zentren in besonderem Maße die Kreativität ihrer Bewohner heraus, die sich in der Herausbildung neuer Formen der Existenzsicherung, neuer Lebensstile sowie in der Aneignung neuer Medien der Kommunikation ausdrückt. Dies gilt zum einen für Städte in Afrika selbst, die durch die Mobilität vom Land in die Stadt wie auch zwischen Städten geprägt sind, zum anderen aber auch für Metropolen in Europa und den USA, in denen zunehmend mehr afrikanische Migranten leben. Die Akteure dieser Veränderung sind in transnationale Netzwerke eingebundene Individuen und Gruppen.
Wir interessieren uns für deren Lebenswelten inner- und außerhalb Afrikas und fragen danach, wie von ihnen urbane Räume besetzt, verändert und auch geschaffen werden und in welcher Weise sich die oft politisch erzwungene Informalisierung bestimmter Bereiche der Ökonomie auf Städte auch außerhalb des Kontinents auswirkt.
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Panel 15
From Colonial Service to Development Work –
Changing Structures and Motives of European Foreign Assignments in Africa
Convenors: Gerald Hödl (Wien), Martina Kopf (Wien)
African states since independence have attracted a large number of European professionals and volunteers in development programmes and projects. These included teachers and scholars in the national education sector, as has been the case on a large scale basis in Côte d’Ivoire, members of NGOs and humanitarian aid organisations, and practitioners employed by European development agencies or government-run programmes like the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
This particular kind of labour migration from Europe to Africa can be traced back to the colonial state of the 20th century, when the idea of colonial development took shape and the military, which was the dominant force during the era of colonial expansion and conquest, was gradually replaced by civil servants.
This panel invites contributions which take a closer look at the sociology and history of Europeans “working in the field” of African development. In how far did the conditions and underlying structures of these efforts change in sovereign African states compared to the colonial state? Are there continuities with regard to the interests and motives on both individual and structural levels? Which traces did these foreign assignments leave in individual biographies, which impact did they have on power/knowledge-systems in Africa as well as in Europe?
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Panel 16
Religious ‘Glocalization’: Versions of Christianity before and after independence
Convenors: Werner Kahl (Hamburg), Eva Youkhana (Bonn)
After the end of colonization, Christianity in Africa has been re-invented. Interestingly, in spite of efforts undertaken by a number of pan-Africanist oriented heads of state of the first generation, to promote African traditional religion (ATR), Christianity has spread rapidly not least because of their intensive links to transnational circuits and the extensive broadcast of their doctrine of salvation. While immediately after independence so called ‘African Independent Churches’ (AIC) offered a more authentic and therefore attractive African version of Christianity the more recent Christian Fundamentalists or Pentecoastal-Charismatic Churches (PCC) have entered a new phase of Christianity by promoting a “complete break with the past” (Meyer 2004). Nevertheless both, the growth and the shift towards Charismatic Christianity, has been due largely to indigenous initiatives.
Dialogue on the role Christianity and the rather new phenomenon of Pentecoastal appropriation play for the formation of African Identity as well as for political decision making processes will help to better understand the dialectics of culture and politics that has influenced and continues to shape societal processes and political dynamics in Africa since independence.
The panel will address both, the relationship between religion and the public sphere on the one hand and between ATR and PCC on the other. The following questions will therefore be tackled:
- Why has the Pentecostal version of Christianity been so attractive and successful in Africa?
- Which strategies are used by PCCs to occupy the public sphere (degree of institutionalization, use of mass media, etc.)?
- Which impacts do the PCCs have on the symbolic structure/arrangements of ‘African cultures’ (revaluation and reconstruction of the natural and socio-cultural environment)?
- To what degree is PCC grounded in, and permeated by ATR?
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Panel 18
Joint Panel: VAD & Afrikanistentag
New Nationalism and Xenophobia in Africa?
Convenors: Norbert Kersting (Stellenbosch), Dirk Kohnert (Hamburg)
General aim and state of the art:
Rethinking nationalism on the occasion of the celebration of 50 years of African independence is the overall aim of this panel. As a result of globalization, the nation-state is said to be of diminishing relevance today. The global economic order with its novel information and communication technologies as well as transport systems has greatly enhanced the mobility of capital and labour. This has triggered international migration on an unprecedented scale. Conversely, national identities and local cultures are being reinvigorated. While strong nationalism may enhance in-group solidarity, it may - under certain conditions - also strengthen out-group hostility.
Citizens in most African countries nowadays seem to accept the concept of nation-state. Over the past fifty years most of them have developed a feeling of national solidarity and identity based on an imagined shared history and a common destiny. National symbols such as anthems, flags and soccer teams have fostered a 'banal nationalism'.
For a long time, a common language was considered indispensible in this strive for national cohesion and identity. Linguistic plurality was hold responsible for conflicts and lack of social solidarity, a ready-made marker for identification and exclusion of strangers - the same way as any other visible or audible personal difference.
To what extent do the new nationalisms of present-day African states differ from those of early independence? Do these new nationalisms support exclusion of immigrants and facilitate violent xenophobia? What are the economic, social and political repercussions? Why do traditional instruments of integration of foreigners in African communities fail and what can be an alternative? Does the example of South African with its violence against African immigrants refute the concept of multiculturalism. Could it be that in Africa, local and national identities are easier to establish than supranational ones? Are Pan-Africanism, African Union and African Renaissance dated elite projects, and how far are they backed outside African elites anyway? The above questions show that it is time for a re-evaluation of, reflection on and - perhaps - a redefinition of goals and strategies regarding African identities.
Dead-lines of submission of abstracts and papers:
We cordially invite all scholars to contribute to this panel with innovative contributions, preferably based on the authors’ own empirical research. The deadline for abstracts of paper proposals is 15 May 2009; papers should be submitted not later than 1 March 2010.
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Panel 19
Continuities and Transformations of the Chieftaincy in the Postcolonial Era
Convenors: Mario Krämer (Siegen / Köln), Wolfgang Zeller (Edinburgh)
Not lastly due to (post-)colonial interventions the institution of the chieftaincy has undergone fundamental changes in many African states during the 20th century. It has, however, retained great significance for politics and jurisdiction. It is characterised by great adaptability and perseverance in interactions with central state actors and transnational organisations. The panel particularly invites contributions which address the following less widely studied aspects of these recent transformations:
The effects of continuing urbanisation in Africa: Control over land represents a key resource of power for the African chieftaincy. But it may be under pressure as rural populations depart to cities and urban areas expand into periurban areas previously controlled by chiefs. This raises the question of the role and function of chieftaincies in the process of urbanisation. Does it speed up the gradual decline of (neo-)traditional rule or can the institution of the chieftaincy also adapt to this challenge, due to its flexibility?
Recent scholarship emphasizes the creativity and powers of self-assertion displayed by (neo-)traditional rulers in situations of conflict, but also their ability to collaborate with the central state to gain control over peripheral spaces of the postcolonial state. In contrast to attempts to instrumentalise the chieftaincy to achieve the decentralisation of political and administrative power from the centre into the periphery, there is increasing evidence that chiefs themselves are attempting to strengthen and use their access to the commanding heights of state power. In which arenas of everyday life is this creative transformation of the central state “from the outside“ particularly visible? Can we observe historical continuities?
Chiefs from SADC member states have been regularly gathering in formal meetings since 2004, in order to coordinate their actions and lobbying work. Muammar al-Gaddafi is actively trying to promote a forum of “African Traditional Leaders“ as an instrument of African unity “from below“. The King of Buganda and the Asantehene have been in direct bilateral negotiations with investors and development aid donors. Does an increasingly transnational network of chiefs amount to the organisation of neo-traditional power by-passing the state?
The panel is dedicated to exploring these and other aspects of continuity and change in the institution of the chieftaincy since political independence. We are interested in empirically grounded and comparative studies from an action-oriented, institutional or historical perspective, or any combinations of these.
Kontinuitäten und Transformationen des Häuptlingtums in der Postkolonialzeit
Panelleiter: Mario Krämer (Siegen / Köln), Wolfgang Zeller (Edinburgh)
Nicht zuletzt aufgrund (post)kolonialer Interventionen hat sich die Institution des Häuptlingtums (chieftaincy) im 20. Jahrhundert in vielen afrikanischen Staaten stark verändert, ist aber dennoch weiterhin von großer Bedeutung für Politik und Recht. Es zeichnet sich durch Anpassungsfähigkeit und Beharrlichkeit in der Interaktion mit zentralstaatlichen und transnationalen Akteuren aus. Das panel lädt im Besonderen Beiträge ein, die sich mit drei bisher wenig beachteten Aspekten von Kontinuität und Wandel befassen:
- Die Auswirkungen der fortschreitenden Urbanisierung: Stellt traditionell die Kontrolle über Land eine der zentralen Machtressourcen des afrikanischen Häuptlingtums dar, so ist mit der Abwanderung der ländlichen Bevölkerung einerseits und der Ausdehnung städtischer Agglomerationen in von Häuptlingen kontrollierte periurbane Gebiete andererseits diese Grundlage der Häuptlings-herrschaft bedroht. Dementsprechend stellt sich die Frage nach der Rolle und den Funktionen des Häuptlingtums im Prozeß der Urbanisierung, also beispielsweise ob diese das schrittweise Ende (neo)traditionaler Herrschaft bedeutet oder die Institution des Häuptlingtums auch diese neue Herausforderung mittels ihrer Flexibilität auffangen kann.
- Neuere Forschungen betonen die Kreativität und Durchsetzungsfähigkeit (neo)traditionaler Herrscher in der konfliktreichen Auseinandersetzung, aber auch der Kooperation mit zentralstaatlichen Instanzen über lokale Macht und die Kontrolle peripherer Räume. Entgegen der Bestrebungen, das Häuptlingtum für die Dezentralisierung von administrativer und oft politischer Machtausübung zu instrumentalisieren gibt es zunehmend Anzeichen, dass umgekehrt Häuptlinge ihren Zugang zur Staatsmacht versuchen auszubauen und zu nutzen. In welchen Bereichen des täglichen Lebens macht sich diese kreative Transformation des Zentralstaates „von aussen“ besonders bemerkbar? Sind hier historische Kontinuitäten zu beobachten?
- Häuptlinge der SADC-Mitgliedstaaten treffen sich seit 2004 regelmässig, um ihre Handlungen und Lobbyarbeit zu koordinieren. Muammar al-Gaddafi versucht aktiv ein Forum der „traditionellen Führer Afrikas“ als Instrument „Afrikanischer Einheit“ aufzubauen und der König von Buganda sowie der Asantehene stehen in direkten „bilateralen“ Verhandlungen mit Investoren und Entwicklungshilfegebern. Führt daher die zunehmende transnationale Vernetzung von Häuptlingen zu einer Koordination und Organisation von (neo)traditionaler Macht am Staate vorbei?
Diesen und weiteren Themen sowie Fragestellungen zu Kontinuität und Wandel des Häuptlingtums seit der politischen Unabhängigkeit möchte sich das Panel widmen; wir sind an empirischen – und möglichst auch vergleichenden – Studien aus handlungstheoretischer, institutioneller oder historischer Perspektive (oder deren Kombination) interessiert.
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Panel 20
New Media - New Publics
Structural Changes of the Public Sphere in Africa
Convenors: Matthias Krings (Mainz), Uta Reuster-Jahn (Mainz)
Modern media, introduced in colonial times, became instrumental in the nation building projects in the newly independent African states, regarding their respective politics of information and culture. Hence the post independence era in many African countries was marked by increasing state control over the media. Since the end of the cold war, political democratisation and economic liberalisation have brought about a shift from state-controlled to privately-owned media. In addition, technical innovations and the “digital age” have resulted in the development of new media formats such as tabloids, video films and music clips sold on cassettes and discs, thus increasing accessibility and affordability for producers as well as consumers. While the field of mass communication has been opened up to private enterprise, cultural output in general has become decentralised as well as radically increased. Computers, mobile phones and the internet have become immensely important for private use and communication as well as for economic activity and political mobilisation. Due to these developments a “media revolution” can be observed in many African countries. This dynamic process and its impact on social and cultural change in the context of democratisation and civil society require further documentation and analysis.
The “media revolution” brings about a structural change of the public sphere and the emergence of new publics. The public viewing of video films, for example, is not only a business but also a social event where films are discussed and commented on. In the press, people are called on to sell their private stories for publication, thus affecting the division between the private and the public sphere. Mobile phones and the internet provide new communication channels and modes of active participation of audiences in the creation and modification of media texts. Readers communicate with writers and publishers of newspapers via email, short text messages, telephone calls or message boards. Listeners’ comments on cultural and social subjects aired live on the radio are another example of the active role of publics.
The panel aims at mapping and analysing the cultural and social changes related to the new media developments. We would like to discuss the new media and modes of communication with regard to cultural practice and the emergence of new publics in Africa. There is also the question of new forms of censorship as well as the inter-relationship and interaction between old and new media. The panel invites papers (in German and English) on all aspects of these problems and processes.
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Panel 21
New perspectives on rural Africa – 50 years after
Convenors: Wolfram Laube (Bonn), Achim von Oppen (Bayreuth)
Between the 1950s and the 1980s, when most African nations achieved political independence, rural studies have been very much in the focus of social science research and debates on Africa. Village and peasant studies, social and ecological aspects of agricultural change, the effects of development intervention, the rise and fall of rural resistance movements, the “articulation” of subsistence and the market, the building of local institutions, identities and arenas – all these have engaged successive generations of anthropologists and sociologists, historians and political scientists. For a considerable period, rural Africa appeared to be the key site of society and its transformation on the continent. Since the 1990s, however, this focus on rural Africa has subsided considerably in social science as well as in development discourse. It gave way to a greater emphasis on studies in towns and cities where current processes of globalization, mobility, or popular culture seem to be more marked and more easily observable. Implicitly, the rural areas once again come to appear as the comparatively marginal and more conservative pole of African society.
Nevertheless, the majority of Africans continues to live in the countryside. Peasants as well as states continue to depend on some form of rural production for their livelihoods. While efforts towards planned “rural development” by agencies and governments have clearly been reduced in the past two decades, rural Africa is more than ever connected to the world at large. Environmental change, new forms of production and employment, translocal flows of people, goods and ideas across global, regional, and rural-urban divides, all continue to take place in and transform the rural areas. The demise and reform of postcolonial governments, the liberalization of markets and institutions, decentralisation and democratisation have certainly not bypassed the African countryside – their male and female inhabitants have engaged with them in a variety of ways. The emergence of new social and religious movements provides but one particularly interesting mirror here.
A return to the rural perspective, reflecting its own history, therefore promises broader insights into processes of the last 50 years as well as a more dynamic picture of the present. This panel calls for contributions presenting either case or comparative studies that deal with the various strands of rural transformation or continuity outlined so far. Of particular interest are contributions transcending established domains of knowledge, highlighting how economic adaptation, social change, political interaction and cultural constructions of meaning have been intertwined. Consequently, the panel invites contributions from a broad variety of disciplines, ranging from historical and social sciences to agricultural and cultural studies. Proposals can be presented in German or English.
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Panel 22
Authority down the Line:
Change and Stability in African Power Relations
Convenors: Elísio Macamo (Bayreuth), Dieter Neubert (Bayreuth)
The panel addresses power and domination in Africa and asks how far they have changed or remained stable since independence. The focus of the inquiry is the notion of authority which broadly speaking refers to the social nature of the exercise of power. In this respect, it begs questions concerning sources and forms of power, how they have been secured over time and what effects their nature has had over the everyday life of Africans. This approach speaks to those scholars who have been concerned with the State in Africa and the manner in which it has discharged its functions. It seeks to place the immediate conditions under which power is exercised at the centre of analysis. The panel assumes that the notion of authority can provide useful insights into the nature of continuities, dislocations and transformations that have made the past 50 years in African lives.
Following the Nigerian novelist and literary theorist, Isidore Okpewho, who once described sociology and literature as, respectively, the aerial and the close-up view of phenomena, the panel invites contributions by social scientists and scholars in the field of literature on the following key questions:
What notions, types and forms of authority have (i) occupied centre stage in the political and societal realm in Africa since independence, (ii) what conflicts have shaped them, (iii) how have they been represented in works of fiction, both print and film and (iv) which have proven most resilient and persistent and how could this be accounted for?
Theoretical papers discussing the relevance of the notion of authority to social and political analysis in Africa are just as welcome as empirical papers documenting aspects of the way in which authority in Africa has been discharged over the ways.
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Panel 23
Continuities and discontinuities 50 years after independence:
the African novel in the 21st century (Joint Panel: VAD Conference & Afrikanistentag)
Convenor: Anja Oed (Mainz)
Transferring the overall topic of the conference to the realm of literature, this panel is concerned with African creative writing 50 years after independence. Most specifically, it welcomes papers on African novels published in the first decade of the 21st century. Preference is given to papers providing overviews or highlighting more general literary trends, i.e., discussions of the continuities and discontinuities in African novels by particular authors, from particular countries and/or in particular languages. Focusing on African novels in both the former colonial and in African languages, this panel represents a so-called ‘Schnittstellen-Panel’.
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Panel 24
Privately regulated spaces: Articulations and disarticulations of neoliberalism in Africa
Convenors: Stefan Ouma (Frankfurt), Martin Doevenspeck (Bayreuth)
In African Studies, neoliberalism has often been conceived of in a structuralist and monolithic fashion as a homogenous policy formation which is mobilized to restructure societies via the primacy of the market as a mean for coordinating social relations, allocating resources, and deliver public and private goods. This is done with little acknowledgement of the inherent schisms and contradictions of neoliberal policy formations, which are more facetted, amorphous, parasitic and adaptive in situ than many social science accounts would suggest.
Therefore, the panel seeks to excavate the social, economic, political and regulatory articulations and disarticulations of neolibalisation in a historical and comparative perspective, to which space is a central category. Neoliberal politico-economic transformation is very much about the renegotiation of claims over territories and resources and the redrawing of social and physical boundaries as the workings of the market unfold. This may either articulate itself directly through purposeful policy choices or indirectly through the side-effects of neoliberalisation as the emergence of privately regulated spaces of production (e.g. export processing zones), extraction (e.g. enclave economies in Congo or Angola) and living (e.g. gated communities) indicate. These variable phenomena can all be rooted in the wider, transnationally entangled neoliberal transformation of African political economies, which, however, is path-dependent and locally fractured. Insofar the panel ties into the theme of the VAD conference “continuities, dislocations and transformations”.
The panel wants to invite scholars from all disciplines to provide both theoretical and empirical accounts of the social, economic, political, regulatory, and spatial articulations and disarticulations of neoliberalisation, helping to advance our understanding of how economic models and ideas actually work on the ground, have developed in a historical perspective, built on and transform existing political economies, and how such a process reconfigures both physical and social boundaries.
Contributions are welcome in English or German. We expect contributors to hand in a meaningful abstract of no more than 400 words.
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Panel 25
Negotiating colonial and postcolonial architectures and home cultures in African cities
Convenors: Kerstin Pinther (Frankfurt), Editha Platte (Frankfurt)
In his latest photographic series Rue Patrice Lumumba, South African artist Guy Tillim focuses on the contemporary condition of architectural projects, which were implemented by the postcolonial states throughout Africa in the 1960s. In those days (mass) housing, furnishing and urban planning projects acquired a symbolic role in the making of new citizens and in the construction of a new society. Special areas of the administrative towns were allocated to civil servants, appropriate houses designed to host the middle class to be and certain interieurs implemented with the intention to form character, mentality and habitus of the residents. Until nowadays these colonial and postcolonial state-initiated urban planning projects feature prominently in many African cities even though adapted, reshaped and remade in often radically different ways.
In this panel we want to approach the colonial and postcolonial architectural legacy of African cities from different angels:
(1) We invite scholars to deal with state-initiated architectural and urban planning projects as well as with ideological implications of colonial and postcolonial architectures as for example discussed and celebrated in local media (journals, photography, film e.g.).
(2) Furthermore the panel seeks to explore the manifold ways people have appropriated and transformed the officially implemented architectures (through the recognition of everyday practices).
(3) The panel also aims to focus on the city’s architectural “heritage” as a subject of reflection and discussion among a multiplicity of local and global agents.
(4) We also propose to consider the positions of contemporary artists like Ângela Ferreira (Maison Tropicale) or photographers as Guy Tillim who reflect critically on colonial building history and its contemporary resonances.
We hope to bring together scholars from different disciplines in order to discuss not only empirical findings but also theoretical and methodological issues concerning the city’s architectures.
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Panel 26
Translations of travelling legal, organisational, and techno-scientific models
in African contexts
Convenors: Richard Rottenburg , Thamar Klein , Johanna Mugler , Andrea Behrends (Halle)
While some scholars emphasize the importance of external influences on the African continent, others try to show the independence, ingenuity and, less often, responsibility of local agency. We invite papers that seek to explore the plausibility of another approach with us; an approach that avoids the juxtaposition between autochthonous and imported social and cultural forms. We proceed from the assumption that throughout Africa, like elsewhere, most social and cultural transformations are entangled with transformations that take place on other continents. In order to examine translocal entanglements we shift our focus to interstitial spaces and forms of distributed agency. Within this larger field, we have chosen to concentrate on legal, organisational and techno-scientific dimensions of transformations in African contexts, brought about by travelling elements of normative and epistemic orders. While our main interest is to shed light on present-day processes, we also invite papers dealing with historical case studies. Besides papers from anthropology we encourage contributions from history, history and sociology of science and technology, law, political sciences, and economics. We invite papers that explore one or more of the following subjects:
- The emergence of new relationships between bodies, politics and biomedical technologies within the interstitial spaces where regimes of governance, techno-scientific practices and social reproduction are undergoing significant changes.
- The links between travelling models and local conflict dynamics. Which available models are selected and which are rejected? How are they translated, and what impact do they have on the local context? How does the local translation contribute to the shaping of a globalized model?
- The practice of administration and adjudication of state law in African countries, and in particular processes by which legal innovations are translated into legal practice in African justice systems.
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Panel 28
Geschlechterpolitischer Wandel in der Transformation
Panelleiterin: Uta Ruppert (Frankfurt)
Seit der Unabhängigkeit werden Fragen politischer Ordnung immer auch im Verhältnis zu Fragen gesellschaftlicher Organisation diskutiert und analysiert. Prozesse politischer Transformation werden (nicht erst seit den 1990er Jahren) begleitet von Kämpfen und Debatten um Repräsentation, Partizipation und Empowerment. Das Ringen um gerechte(re) Verhältnisse zwischen den Geschlechtern konstituiert unter den verschiedensten politischen, institutionellen und sozialen Bedingungen eine der wichtigsten Arenen, in denen gesellschaftliche Veränderungen ausgehandelt werden. An Beispielen wie den jüngeren Prozessen in Kenia oder Südafrika lässt sich zugleich zeigen, dass und wie Geschlechterpolitik als Motor der Transformation fungiert. In diesem Sinne sollen in diesem Panel Prozesse politischer Transformation und des Wandels der Geschlechterverhältnisse in ihren Wechselbeziehungen analysiert und diskutiert werden. Folgende Aspekte sind dabei von Interesse:
- Geschlechterpolitik und Geschlechterordnung in Zeiten des Widerstands
- Geschlechterpolitik und Geschlechterordnung im Krieg
- Geschlechterpolitik in den verschiedenen Phasen der Transformation/Geschlechterpolitik als Motor der Transformation
- Geschlechterpolitik im Spannungsfeld von internationalen Normen, nationalen Politikprozessen und lokalen Aushandlungen
- Geschlechterordnung als Arena der Verhandlung von Gesellschaftsordnung
- Transnationalisierung von Geschlechterordnungen
- Rolle und Bedeutung von Akteur/inn/en der Geschlechterpolitik
- Geschlechterverhältnisse und Lebenswelten im Wandel
Erwünscht sind empirische (Detail)Studien und vergleichende Analysen ebenso wie theoretische Konzeptualisierungen.
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ilissAfrica Workshop & Infostand afrikarelevanter Fachbibliotheken / Information about virtual libraries and special interest collections in Germany
- Zeitgemäße Literatur- und Informationsrecherche für Afrikawissenschaften:
Workshop zur Evaluation des Portals ilissAfrica - Informationsstand zu afrikarelevanten virtuellen Fachbibliotheken und Sondersammelgebieten in Deutschland / Information about virtual libraries and special interest collections in Germany
