Development And Subsistence In Globalising Africa

In Africa, people striving to live and survive under the complex relationship between development and subsistence have been directly or indirectly feeling influences of globalisation. As Africa's involvement in globalisation deepens, social phenomena are apparently synchronizing or becoming more similar to those in the rest of the world, but they are not homogenised with them, especially those of developed countries now or in the past. The dichotomic view distinguishing development and subsistence has already become outdated. Day after day, African people are trying to reconcile or bridge the two as capable actors. People in Africa, faced with challenges common throughout the world, live in their own ways. Africa can contribute to the world by sharing knowledge acquired through the struggles of development and subsistence, and by bridging the two.

The first comprehensive work on globalization within the context of sustainable development initiatives in Africa.

This is a collection of bold and visionary scholarship that reveals an insightful exposition of re-visioning African development from African perspectives. It provides an interdisciplinary conceptual base that can effectively guide the planning and implementing of programs for socio-economic development in Africa. The book provides up-to-date scholarly research on continental trends on various subjects and concerns of paramount importance to globalisation and development in Africa (politics, democracy, education, gender, technology, global relationships and the role of non-governmental organisations).

This book analyses the impact of the Western idea of 'modernity' on development and underdevelopment in Africa. It traces the genealogy of the Western idea of modernity from European Enlightenment concepts of the universal nature of human history and development, and shows how this idea was used to justify the Western exploitation and oppression of Africa. It argues that contemporary development, theory and practice is a continuation of the Enlightenment project and that Africa can only achieve real development by rejecting Western modernity and inventing its own forms of modernity. The book is divided into four sections. The first section provides an outline of the theory of modernity in the Enlightenment project. In the second section, an attempt is made to trace the genealogy of the idea of development as modernity and how the African development process gets entangled with it. Here, its evolution is mapped through three periods: early modernity, capitalist modernity and late modernity. Zeroing in on the current era of late or hypermodernity, the book contests the idea that there is something new in globalisation and its neo-liberal development paradigm. The third section turns to the complex but pertinent question of how, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Africa can transcend the impasse of modernity. The fourth and final section sums up the argument and points the way forward.

This publication critically reviews the effects of globalisation on sub-Saharan Africa over the last three decades. The large gains expected from opening up to international economic forces have, to date, been limited, while there have been significant adverse consequences. Foreign direct investment in the region has been largely confined to resource - especially mineral - extraction, even as continuing capital flight has reduced financial resources available for productive investments. Premature trade liberalisation has undermined prospects for the economic development of productive capacities in many sectors - including manufacturing and agriculture -- are not sufficiently competitive to take advantage of improvements in market access.

In this endnote address delivered at the 11th General Assembly of CODESRIA, held in Maputo in 2005, Sundaram notes that over three decades of economic stagnation, contraction and increased poverty have taken a huge toll on Africa's economic, social and political fabric; and pro-active efforts are urgently required in order to build new capacities and capabilities for development. He argues that much of the ostensible conventional wisdom regarding African development and poverty is often both erroneous and harmful; and calls for greater 'policy space' for African governments to choose or design their own development strategies, as well as implement more appropriate development policies. (This dual language edition is in both English and French).

African economies are the most dependent and the most marginalized within the global system. The prevailing policies that are designed to overcome the African crisis and to reverse their marginalization by integrating African economies more closely with the global economy through openness, have generally exacerbated their problems by deepening their internal fragmentation. This book is an attempt to contribute to the ongoing effort to develop more appropriate alternative strategies. It proposes an ingenious balance between autocentric and globalist approaches to transcend the African paradox.