This volume brings together the most up to date analyses of civil
society in Africa from the best scholars and researchers working on the
subject. Being the first of its kind, it casts a panoramic look at the
African continent, drawing out persisting, if often under-communicated,
variations in regional discourses. In a majority of notionally 'global'
studies, Africa has received marginal attention, a marginality often
highlighted by the usual token chapter. Filling a critical hiatus,
theHandbook of Civil Society in Africa takes Africa, African
developments, and African perspectives very seriously and worthy of
academic interrogation in their own right. It offers a critical,
clear-sighted perspective on civil society in Africa, and positions
African discourses within the framework of important regional and global
debates. It promises to be an invaluable reference work for researchers
and practitioners working in the fields of civil society, nonprofit
studies, development studies, volunteerism, civic service, and African
studies.
Endorsements:
"This volume signposts a critical turning point in the renewed
engagement with the theory and practice of civil society in Africa.
Moving from traditional concerns with disquisitions on the
appropriateness and possibility of the existence and vibrancy of the
idea of civil society on the continent, the volume approaches the forms,
contents, and features of the actually existing civil society in Africa
from thematic, regional, and national angles.
It demonstrates clearly the extent to which core intellectual work on
civil society in Africa has largely moved from concerns with cultural
reductionism to a nuanced examination of the complexities of (formal,
non-formal, organizational, non-organizational, traditional, newer,
usual, unusual) engagements, detailing the extent to which, over time,
civil society as a concept has been indigenized, appropriated and
adapted in the terrains of politics, society, economy, culture and new
technologies on the continent.
In all this, the book accomplishes the near-impossible. Without
sacrificing the vigour, rigor and freshness of the often unpredictable
fruits of up-to-date research into regional and national differences
that crop up in the documentation of Africa's multiple realities and
discourses, the volume weaves together a rich tapestry of the
historical, theoretical and practical dimensions of an expanding civil
society sector, and accompanying growth in popular discourse, advocacy,
and academic literature, in such a diverse continent as Africa, into a
meaningful whole of insightful themes.
Written and edited by a very distinguished cross-continental and
multi-disciplinary collection of researchers, research students,
practitioners and activists, the volume provides cutting-edge evidence
and makes a definitive case for a new lease of life for civil society
research in Africa."
-Adigun Agbaje, Professor of Political Science, University of Ibadan,
Nigeria.
"Throughout Africa, forms of civic engagement and political
participation have seen dynamic change in recent decades, yet
conceptions of civil society have rarely accounted for this evolution.
This volume is an essential source of new thinking about political
association and collective action in Africa. The authors offer a wealth
of analysis on changing organizations and social movements, new forms of
interaction and communication, emerging strategies and issues, diverse
social foundations, and the theoretical implications of a shifting
associational landscape. The contributors provide an invaluable addition
to the comparative literature on political change, democratic
development, and social movements in Africa."
Peter Lewis, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced international
Studies
