Suchergebnisse

'Modernisation' was one of the most pervasive ideologies of the twentieth century. Focusing on a case study of the Kariba Dam in central-southern Africa and based on an array of primary sources and interviews the book provides a nuanced understanding of development in the turbulent late 1950s, a time when most colonies moved towards independence

"Der Kariba-Staudamm an der Grenze zwischen dem heutigen Sambia und Simbabwe war ein Beispiel spätkolonialer Modernisierungspolitik und zugleich Symbol eines vielbeachteten Staatsbildungsexperiments: Die 1953 ins Leben gerufene Zentralafrikanische Föderation wurde von ihren politischen Vätern als 'dritter Weg' zwischen weißen und schwarzen Unabhängigkeitsbewegungen deklariert. Aus heutiger Sicht versinnbildlicht das Mammutprojekt sowohl das Scheitern der hochumstrittenen Föderation als auch die Verfehlungen großer Entwicklungsvorhaben insgesamt: Kariba nutzte der 'weißen' Industrie, brachte der verarmten indigenen Landbevölkerung jedoch Schaden. Lokale Akteure versuchten, diese Ungleichheiten zu korrigieren, wie der vorliegende Aufsatz anhand von Hezekiah Habanyama, einem Mitglied der lokalen afrikanischen Verwaltungselite, und Harry Nkumbula, dem Präsidenten des nordrhodesischen African National Congress aufzeigt. Die Positionen, die der 'loyale Verwaltungsbeamte' einerseits und der 'Widerstandskämpfer' andererseits einnahmen, entziehen sich allerdings einer einfachen Zuordnung in Für- oder Gegenstimmen, Opposition oder Kollaboration. Ihre vielfach verflochtenen Strategien und Ideen im Hinblick auf 'Entwicklung' verdeutlichen vielmehr die grundsätzliche Ambivalenz des spätkolonialen Doppelprojekts von Staatsbildung und Modernisierung." (Autorenreferat)

The volume Environmental Change and African Societies contributes to current debates on global climate change from the perspectives of the social sciences and the humanities. It charts past and present environmental change in different African settings and also discusses policies and scenarios for the future. The first section, "Ideas", enquires into local perceptions of the environment, followed by contributions on historical cases of environmental change and state regulation. The section "Present" addresses decision-making and agenda-setting processes related to current representations and/or predicted effects of climate change. The section "Prospects" is concerned with contemporary African megatrends. The authors move across different scales of investigation, from locally-grounded ethnographic analyses to discussions on continental trends and international policy. Contributors are: Daniel Callo-Concha, Joy Clancy, Manfred Denich, Sara de Wit, Ton Dietz, Irit Eguavoen, Ben Fanstone, Ingo Haltermann, Laura Jeffrey, Emmanuel Kreike, Vimbai Kwashirai, James C. McCann, Bertrand F. Nero, Jonas Ø. Nielsen, Erick G. Tambo, Julia Tischler

Environmental Change and African Societies contributes to current debates on climate change from the perspectives of the social sciences and the humanities. It charts past and present environmental change in different African settings as well as scenarios for the future.; Readership: Historians, social anthropologists, political scientists, geographers and anyone else interested in environmental change in Africa.

This book traces the evolution of climate change research, which, long dominated by the natural sciences, now sees greater involvement with disciplines studying the socio-cultural implications of global warming. While most of social climate change research focuses on how people deal with environmental stresses and possible ways of adaptation, this volume foregrounds the question: What are the theoretical and methodological challenges of investigating climate change in different disciplines? In their Introduction, the editors chart the changing role of the social and cultural sciences in climate change research, delineating different research strands that have emerged over the past few years. Part I of the book explores the prospects and challenges of interdisciplinarity in climate change research, connecting the points of view of a plant ecologist, a historian and a social anthropologist. Parts II and III provide ethnographic insights in a wide range of 'climate cultures' by exploring the social and cultural implications of global warming in particular contexts and communities, stretching from hunter communities in the High Arctic and the Canadian Subarctic over Dutch and Cape Verdian island communities and the metropolitan citizens of Tokyo to pastoralist families in the West African Sahel. Thereby, Parts II and III explore ethnography's potential to produce locally-grounded knowledge about global phenomena, such as climate change. Uniting the different approaches, all authors engage critically with the research subject of climate change itself, reflecting on their own practices of knowledge production and epistemological presuppositions