Description
Book SynopsisThis book adopts a critical approach to the emergence and function of civil society organizations in Africa, with a particular focus on Malawi. Foucauldian and critical international political economy frameworks are used to interpret data gathered from ethnographic research in Malawi.
Trade ReviewClive Gabay presents Malawi as an ‘ordinary African country’ and therefore as an instructive example of how typical African state power functions in and through civil society organisations. This book is therefore a rich and nuanced case study through which broader arguments are drawn out about global projects of liberal transformation, Foucauldian and Gramscian political theory, and the role of civil society as agents of resistance and transformation. Ultimately, however, we also learn a great deal about the extraordinary circumstances of the transition from Presidents Mutharika to Banda and the crucial relationships between formal and informal society in a country often labelled ‘the warm heart of Africa’. -- Carl Death, University of Manchester
By bringing a governmentality framework to the study of African state-society relations, Clive Gabay’s Exploring an African Civil Society: Development and Democracy in Malawi, 1994–2014, makes a distinct contribution to the scholarly work on issues of democracy and development through the lens of civil society and its political significance. It presents a new and fresh approach to understanding the importance of Western projects of democracy and notions of development in Malawi, specifically, and sub-Saharan Africa, more broadly, and how these have been influenced by colonial relations, Cold War geopolitics, and liberal interventions. The book is key reading for students, scholars, and policy analysts interested in issues of democracy and development, and in the emergence and agency of an African civil society. -- Suzan Ilcan, University of Waterloo and the Balsillie School of International Affairs
Table of ContentsChapter 1. Introduction: Imagining the State in/of Africa through Civil Society Chapter 2. Civil Society, the Transformational Subject, and the World Bank Chapter 3. Civil Society and Development in Malawi Chapter 4. Civil Society and Democracy in Malawi Chapter 5. Conclusion: Of Pitfalls and Potentialities
