VAD e.V.

The working state in Africa – public services and public servants in action

Convenors: Jan Budniokse E-Mail-Adresse ist gegen Spambots geschützt! Sie müssen JavaScript aktivieren, damit Sie sie sehen können. Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist gegen Spam Bots geschützt, Sie müssen JavaScript aktivieren, damit Sie es sehen können , Sarah Fichtner Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist gegen Spambots geschützt! Sie müssen JavaScript aktivieren, damit Sie sie sehen können. Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist gegen Spam Bots geschützt, Sie müssen JavaScript aktivieren, damit Sie es sehen können (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.