Economic and Political Reform in Africa Anthropological Perspectives [Hardcover]

What are the local effects of major economic and political reforms in Africa? How have globalized pro-market and pro-democracy reforms impacted local economics and communities? Examining case studies from The Gambia, Ghana, Mozambique, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia, Peter D. Little shows how rural farmers and others respond to complex agendas of governments, development agencies, and non-governmental organizations. The book explores the contradictions between what policy reforms were supposed to do and what actually happened in local communities. Littles bold vision of development challenges common narratives of African poverty, dependency, and environmental degradation and suggests that sustainable development in Africa can best be achieved by strengthening local livelihoods, markets, and institutions.

Brings sophisticated ethnographic attention to the 'unexpected changes and contradictions' within the gaps and spaces opened up by the 'reforms' of the past twenty years. It is a uniquely detailed empirical account of many activities, in many places, with varied international, national and local participants, all engaging at the interface of the terms of 'reform' and the lives and development prospects of the people.This is a rich, informative book on extremely complicated processes in Africa. . . . Recommended.Economic and Political Reform in Africa is a fascinating and wide ranging treatment of neoliberal development policy in sub-Saharan Africa. This text should be required reading for anybody interested in African development, and would be of significant interest to anybody interested in neoliberal development in post-colonial settings.

Peter D. Little is Professor and Chair of Anthropology and Director of the Program in Development Studies at Emory University.

Preface
Introduction: What it means to be Reformed?
1. They Think We Can Manufacture Crops: Contract Farming and the Non-Traditional Commodity Business
2. Everybody is a Petty Tl³ë