Beyond the State in Rural Uganda

ISBN-13: 9780748635191 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 224 str.

Ben Jones

Opis

In this innovative study, Ben Jones argues that scholars too often assume that the state is the most important force behind change in local political communities in Africa. Studies look to the state, and to the impact of government reforms, as ways of understanding processes of development and change. Using the example of Uganda, regarded as one of Africa's few "success stories," Jones chronicles the insignificance of the state and the marginal impact of Western development agencies. Extensive ethnographic fieldwork in a Ugandan village reveals that it is churches, the village court, and organizations based on family and kinships obligations that represent the most significant sites of innovation and social transformation.Groundbreaking and critical in turn, Beyond the State offers a new anthropological perspective on how to think about processes of social and political change in poorer parts of the world. It should appeal to anyone interested in African development.

Spis treści

1. Introduction; Moving the State from the Centre; In Between "Development"; The Rest of the Book; 2. Introducing Oledai; Themes that Cut Across Developments in the Village; Seniority, Prosperity, Propriety; Explaining Change in the Village; 3. Teso Society through the Twentieth Century; From Stateless to Sub-Colonial; Teso through the Post-Colonial Period; The Teso Insurgency; Conclusion; 4. The Village Court and the Withdrawn State; Away from Decentralisation; The History of the State in Teso Villages; The Actual Work of the Village Council in Oledai; Conclusion; 5. The Pentecostal Church; The Nature of Pentecostalism; Pentecostalism in the Teso Region; The Incorporation of Pentecostalism; The Limits to Incorporation; Conclusion; 6. The Anglican and Catholic Churches; The Historic Mission Churches in Teso; The Influence of Pentecostalism; Conclusion; 7. Burial Societies; The Work of Burial Societies; The Genealogy of Burial Societies; Burial Societies and Local Borrowings; The Past in the Present; Conclusion; 8. Conclusion; Churches and the Meaning Of Change; Burials, Ideas and Institutional Change; Uganda in Between; Appendix A: Research Methods; Appendix B: Interviews; Interviews Conducted in the Sub-Parish of Oledai; Interviews: Others; Participants in Group Discussions in Oledai; Participants in Group Discussions in Agolitom (Conducted in Ateso).