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- Date Issued:
- 1986-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Journal of Social Development in Africa
- Description:
- Despite improvements in some social sectors in some countries, conditions in African countries worsened over the last two decades of the 20th century. As corporate globalization continues to make in roads into national policies and politics, further weakening the ability of African countries to act, there is a need to explore other alternatives for development in Africa. Although this article is essentially an effort to articulate a theoretical deconstruction and reconstruction of the African State, in its content, it is based on numerous empirical case studies and research projects developed by the author over the years on Africa's international relations, political economy, development, and world politics. Reconceptualizing the African state is a must because, firstly, about four decades of preoccupation with development have yielded only very meager returns. It has proven a mistake to attempt to analyze something that has not yet been seriously on the agenda, dealing mainly with symptoms related to behaviors of the state instead of its substance. Secondly, all the available evidence points to the inescapable conclusion that political conditions in Africa are the greatest impediment to development. Thirdly, despite the explosion of the number of actors in the global system and the deliberate efforts of mega financial, multinational and multilateral institutions to African States, and also despite the fact that the African systems of delivering services or performance at the national level are highly problematic, the African State is still the most visible actor in world politics. Finally, the fate of Africa's peoples and cultures has been historically defined by the dynamics of the state, especially its role in international political economy and in making alliances for its own immortality. Colonial Africa was created essentially as states and not as nations, and neo-colonial political elites inherited African States as the central agencies defining the parameters of economy, culture, and the people or citizens.The typologies used here are shaped by an historical structuralist approach that stipulates that systems, states, corporations or social institutions do not function randomly. The system is not just the sum of its elements. It is more than what is tangible. This holistic approach puts the emphasis on change. The African State in its current form is not an agent of positive social change because this state was created to advance the interests of metropolitan capitalism. Development has not started in Africa for many reasons, despite the goodwill of many Africans and African social movements. African people need to reinvent new state forms that can effectively address issues related to poverty, gender inequalities, etc. Despite corporate globalization and the struggles to dismantle welfare states, African people can learn a great deal from the policy and politics of such states.
- Date Issued:
- 2002-06-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- African Journal of Political Science
- Description:
- The study of society is necessarily influenced by the social currents and the nature of the interacting forces that characterize human activities. Thus, modernization theories, post-structuralism and dependency theory all reflect cultural patterns and references which can be located in specific times and places. Paulo Freire's sociology derives its character from the cultural and societal norms of his environment, especially his analysis of historical materialist conditions. Freire advocates revolutionary action for liberation and freedom, which must be extended beyond the individual for maximum social significance. Development is a bridge that connects the individual to society, and the local to the global.
- Date Issued:
- 1996-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- This paper discusses some aspects of the relationship between urbanisation and capitalism in the developing world, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa. This is followed by a general overview of urbanisation in Africa and an examination of urbanisation in Zimbabwe, focusing on some of the problems associated with rapid urbanisation. Finally, some policy implications relating to urbanisation and development in Zimbabwe are reviewed.
- Date Issued:
- 1988-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Journal of Social Development in Africa
- Date Issued:
- 1989-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- African Journal of Political Economy
- Date Issued:
- 1987-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Journal of Social Development in Africa
- Description:
- This paper explores the usefulness and feasibility of using emergency aid and food aid to stimulate development processes during periods of famine in Africa. The proposition that relief aid can be utilised in creative ways that directly benefit individual households by increasing the value of their assets is made in a forceful way. Diversified sources of rural income resulting from this strategy reinforce the capacity of the most vulnerable households to protect themselves against the effects of future drought. This may seem a somewhat ambitious objective. However, even under considerable personal stress people have a tremendous will to survive and to invest in their future if given the chance. If this is true, then the bulk of emergency food aid supplied to African countries is used inefficiently because it does not offer families this possibility.
- Date Issued:
- 1989-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Journal of Social Development in Africa
- Description:
- This paper takes a critical look at the popular issue of participation, and suggests that a major weakness in the literature of participation is its failure to deal with the realities of statism in the modern world, and particularly the Third World. The paper argues that while many proponents of participation theory claim a commitment to socialism and marxism their views in fact derive from a blend of individualism, populism and anarchism, ideologies which incorporate a basic distrust of the state. In effect the impact of this is that participation theory has an implied distrust of state sponsored development. This distrust, the paper argues, is not necessarily a fair reflection of the current state of affairs in the Third World.
- Date Issued:
- 1987-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Journal of Social Development in Africa
- Date Issued:
- 1988-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- African Journal of Political Economy
- Description:
- This paper offers a criticism of modernisation and dependency schools of thought which have retarded the ability of social work to contribute in a meaningful way to the solution of Africa's many problems. A move from a residual to a radical paradigm is urged, reflecting five key dimensions which together offer a blueprint for a way forward. Radical developmental social work of an interdisciplinary nature, guided by informed, forward-thinking profesionals and grounded in African realities may be the only answer if the profession is to survive into the next century. Perhaps only then will the social workers be able to produce a practice that meets Africa's requirements and one that deals effectively with the major concerns faced by the African peoples.
- Date Issued:
- 1987-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Journal of Social Development in Africa