Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

Informal Institutions and Citizenship in Rural Africa: Risk and Reciprocity in Ghana and C�te d'Ivoire

Lauren M. MacLean

4.5/5 ( ratings)

This book challenges previous assumptions about institutions, social capital, and the nature of the African state by investigating the history of political and economic change in villages on either side of the Ghana-Cote d'Ivoire border. Prior to European colonial rule, these Akan villages had very similar political and cultural institutions. By the late 1990s, however, Lauren M. MacLean found puzzling differences in the informal institutions of reciprocity and indigenous notions of citizenship. Drawing on extensive village-based fieldwork and archival research, MacLean argues that divergent histories of state formation not only shape how villagers help each other but also influence how local groups and communities define citizenship and then choose to engage with the state on an everyday basis. She examines the historical construction of the state role in mediating risk at the local level across three policy areas: political administration, social service delivery, and agriculture, highlighting the importance of the colonial and post-colonial state in transforming informal institutions.

Pages: 314

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Release: January 02, 2014

ISBN: 1107617952

ISBN 13: 9781107617957

Informal Institutions and Citizenship in Rural Africa: Risk and Reciprocity in Ghana and C�te d'Ivoire

Lauren M. MacLean

4.5/5 ( ratings)

This book challenges previous assumptions about institutions, social capital, and the nature of the African state by investigating the history of political and economic change in villages on either side of the Ghana-Cote d'Ivoire border. Prior to European colonial rule, these Akan villages had very similar political and cultural institutions. By the late 1990s, however, Lauren M. MacLean found puzzling differences in the informal institutions of reciprocity and indigenous notions of citizenship. Drawing on extensive village-based fieldwork and archival research, MacLean argues that divergent histories of state formation not only shape how villagers help each other but also influence how local groups and communities define citizenship and then choose to engage with the state on an everyday basis. She examines the historical construction of the state role in mediating risk at the local level across three policy areas: political administration, social service delivery, and agriculture, highlighting the importance of the colonial and post-colonial state in transforming informal institutions.

Pages: 314

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Release: January 02, 2014

ISBN: 1107617952

ISBN 13: 9781107617957

More books from Lauren M. MacLean

Field Research in Political Science: Practices and Principles

4.2/5 ( ratings)

The Politics of Non-state Welfare

Rate this book!

Write a review?