Suchergebnisse

The democratic transition processes in Africa since the 1990s have carried great hopes and expectations about 'civil society' and ambivalence about the state. This book explores the complex interactions between state fragility, self-help, and self organization in Nigeria. Nigeria's associational life is highly developed and multifaceted, reaching far beyond 'civil society organizations' (CSOs) or non-governmental organizations (NGOs). There is a 'third sector' within civil society that encompasses a spectrum extending from community-based forms of self-help to ethnic or religious representation, and even militias. Some self organization formations have narrow, pragmatic aims. Others have an explicit socio-cultural or political agenda. Many respond to, and cope with consequences of the Nigerian state's inability to deliver services and provide functioning regulatory frameworks. Examining and analyzing the emergence of broader forms of civil society, the book considers its roots, dynamics and successes, but also pinpoints its costs, ambivalences, and contradictions. Despite strong traditions of self-organization in Nigeria, many pressure groups, organizations defending rights, independent policy consultants and other structures known as 'civil society organizations' are also dependent on foreign aid. The book contributes to deliberations on the relationship between state and civil society in Nigeria, Africa, and globally.

Drawing on the interdisciplinary research projects of scholars from various social science and humanities disciplines, this book explores how African migration to Western countries after the neo-liberal economic reforms of the 1980s transformed West African states and their new transnational populations in Western countries. Collectively, their contributions offer an analysis of how the interplay of social, political, economic, and cultural forces have shaped the nature and form of transnationalization.

The dawn of neoliberal rationality in Africa in the 1980s coincided with a massive exodus of skilled Africans to the global North. Moving beyond the 'push and pull' framework that has dominated studies of this phenomenon, this collection instead looks at African transnational migrations against the backdrop of rapid and intensifying globalization. In doing so, it explores a dimension usually neglected in most accounts--the ways in which transnationalism as a whole is largely a function of the remarkable adaptability and innovation of actual migrants.

This book addresses the meanings and implications of self-organization and state society relations in contemporary Nigerian politics. Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome, Brooklyn College, CUNY, USA Wale Adebanwi, University of California-Davis, USA Oluf?mi Akin?la, Obaf?mi Awol?w? University, Nigeria Ademola Araoye, United Nations Mission, Liberia Ebenezer Obadare, University of Kansas, Lawrence, USA Mr. F.A. Olasupo, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria Ayo Olukotun, Lead City University, Nigeria Rosemary Olufunmilayo Soetan, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria