Gender Democracy And Institutional Development In Africa

This book analyses African foundations of gender, education, politics, democracy and institutional development by stimulating theoretical discourses. It offers a discursive framework on ways to examine the conceptualizations of African social development and a critical discourse on debunking the misconceptions that are attached to African location in the global arena. The volume challenges the danger of minimizing and oversimplifying the role of Africa in the international space. This will be ideal for researchers, students and scholars in the areas of African and gender studies, development, politics and education. Njoki Nathani Wane is Professor of African Indigenous Education, Black Feminisms, Anti-colonial and Decolonization Thought, University of Toronto, Canada.

This book investigates women’s political participation in Africa. Going beyond the formal institutions of electoral politics, it explores a range of spaces where everyday politics take place, at national and at local levels. In recent years there have been significant improvements in the number of women elected to parliament in Africa. However, there is little indication that this is translating into better developmental outcomes, and indeed there is mounting evidence that it could in fact help to bolster some authoritarian regimes. Starting from the premise that politics is a far broader project than securing a seat in national or local legislatures alone, this book explores the opportunities for women’s political participation across a number of informal spaces where women and men gather, organise and interact in a more regular and systematic manner. Combining insights from political science, sociology and feminist theory and drawing on detailed cases from the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Rwanda, it examines how power in its multiple dimensions circulates across a range of everyday political spaces, while drawing attention to the links between domestic gender inequalities and the global political economy. Inviting scholars, practitioners and activists to broaden their focus beyond formal electoral institutions if they want to support women to become more politically active, this book provides fresh insights into major issues at the heart of African studies, development studies, gender and development, democratisation, and international relations.

This book analyses African foundations of gender, education, politics, democracy and institutional development by stimulating theoretical discourses. It offers a discursive framework on ways to examine the conceptualizations of African social development and a critical discourse on debunking the misconceptions that are attached to African location in the global arena. The volume challenges the danger of minimizing and oversimplifying the role of Africa in the international space. This will be ideal for researchers, students and scholars in the areas of African and gender studies, development, politics and education.

Offers new research on the vital importance of institutions, such as presidential term-limits in the African democratisation processes.

Describes barriers to women's political participation and explains why women's inclusion is crucial to democracy. It identifies strategies - electoral reform (New Zealand), party voluntary quotas (South Africa), and legislative quotas (Bangladesh and India) - that have helped to advance the participation of women in decision-making at all levels.

Gender and the Information Revolution in Africa

This book brings together conceptual debates on the impact of youth-hood and gender on state building in Africa. It offers contemporary and interdisciplinary analyses on the role of protests as an alternative route for citizens to challenge the ballot box as the only legitimate means of ensuring freedom. Drawing on case studies from seven African countries, the contributors focus on specific political moments in their respective countries to offer insights into how the state/society social contract is contested through informal channels, and how political power functions to counteract citizen’s voices. These contributions offer a different way of thinking about state-building and structural change that goes beyond the system-based approaches that dominate scholarship on democratization and political structures. In effect, it provides a basis for organizers and social movements to consider how to build solidarity beyond influencing government institutions. Chapters 3, 5, and 6 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Southern Africa has embarked on one of the world's most ambitious security co-operation initiatives, seeking to roll out the principles of the United Nations at regional levels. This book examines the triangular relationship between democratisation, the character of democracy and its deficits, and national security practices and perceptions of eleven southern African states. It explores what impact these processes and practices have had on the collaborative security project in the region. Based on national studies conducted by African academics and security practitioners over three years, it includes an examination of the way security is conceived and managed, as well as a comparative analysis of regional security co-operation in the developing world.