Expectations of Modernity: Myths and Meanings of Urban Life on the Zambian Copperbelt

Gerhart, Gail M.; Ferguson, J.

doi:10.2307/20049872

Cited by 44 publications

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“…With investments going on dams, roads, and factories, or loans spent on consumer imports rather than inputs for industrialisation, economic bets were confidently placed on the relative prosperity of post‐colonial African nations. As Nabudere (1997) puts it, modernisation presented itself as a paradigm for social process, which beyond its structural contradictions (Ferguson 1999), also ran up against normative disintegration in different African contexts. As a social framework it was steeped in structural prejudice, or Eurocentrism, as Samir Amin (1989) convincingly showed, with the “modern” principles of rationality and universalism intimately connected to ideas about Euro‐American superiority (see also Parsons 1966).…”

Section: Debt Crises In Zambiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Africa's Next Debt Crisis: A Relational Comparison of Chinese and Western Lending to Zambia

Gort

Brooks

2023

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Africa faces a new debt crisis fuelled by Chinese and Western lending. At the forefront is Zambia, which defaulted on Eurobond payments in 2020. The article sets the developing Africa‐wide crisis within a relational comparison that draws the current Zambian moment together with the financial collapse of the 1980s. By placing Chinese lending within a comparative global frame, we make three contributions. First, Zambia provides a “spatial fix” for capital, but such African borrowing is not passive and shapes hegemonic struggles between China and the US. Thus secondly, Africa's relationship with debt is co‐constituent in the remaking of the global economy, as signalled by the contested execution and interpretation of development‐as‐modernisation. Finally, a relational comparison of the two debt crises demonstrates that global capitalist hegemony is, partly, engineered by the consent and coercion of African governments, yet the human costs of borrowing are fully borne by the world's poorest.

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Section: Debt Crises In Zambiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Africa's Next Debt Crisis: A Relational Comparison of Chinese and Western Lending to Zambia

Gort

Brooks

2023

Antipode

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“…The findings pointed to the proliferation of Western political and education models as well as industrialization to be among the factors weakening kinship. It was observed that western education usually emphasized individual aspirations and not so much on others (Gordon, 2002;Ferguson, 1999;Richards, 1969;Goody, 1963). Revelations by respondents indicate that wealth acquired through an individual effort led to isolation as some people contended that they could enjoy the fruits of their labour alone or possibly with only those close to them.…”

Section: Western Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The high cost of living appears to compel some people to relinquish their responsibility to extended families as they can only manage to fend for nuclear families (-) even though with difficulties. Western education and politics are said to have brought in value changes in direct opposition to the extended family life since they emphasize individualism over collectivity (Ferguson, 1999;Parsons and Bales 1955). The findings confirmed that the majority of those who have acquired the existing education insist so much on their rights), and privacy as they want to live as they please.…”

Section: Factors Weakening Kinship Tiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Divorce rates and deaths of guardians had contributed to change in family patterns. Findings showed that some children were being looked after by relatives because their parents had divorced or [had] died (Ferguson, 1999;Hill, 1999). In other instances parents were working away from home.…”

Section: Factors Weakening Kinship Tiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This study was set to analyze key cultural strengths of Bemba and related families, premised on the assumption that they provide a solid foundation upon which to develop the kind of public policies and self-help initiatives that will genuinely promote the interests of Zambians and diverse peoples in need nationwide (Ferguson, 1999). Initiatives to accommodate orphans and senior citizens in institutions of care by some government agencies and Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs) are worthwhile but have been met with various challenges (March, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social Significance of Kinship in the Bemba Speech Community

2023

JLLL

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This study investigated the social significance of kinship in a Bemba speech community by examining the concept from the linguistic and anthropological perspectives. It took a qualitative approach, in particular ethnographic research design. This study included family heads, spouses, children, dependents, area councilors, social workers in Mufulira District. In total forty eight (48) participants took part in the study. Family heads, children and dependents among others took part in the study. Two methods of sampling were used in this study: purposive and simple random. Data was collected through interviews, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and questionnaire. Findings indicate that many factors have certainly strained extended family ties to an extent that many people no longer honor the ideals of traditional family loyalty yet, such cultural ideals are as common to African societies as those of personal autonomy are in Western societies. Literature corroborates with the findings and establishes that the family is one of the key cultural strongholds in a Bemba community just like in many African communities. Unanimously, participants in the study point to the disintegrated social cohesion as one of the factors contributing to the increase in the number of people in need of care and support. There seem to be a general view from participants that initiatives to support the needy should be accompanied with efforts to ascertain their socio-psychological effects on those in need of care and support. Findings further reveal that majority of the people in need of support have relatives who could come to their aid but are unable due to, among other issues, economic hardships. This paper encourages the acceptance and support of extended family system in Zambia owing to its cultural compatibility with the community.

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Free money's ideological nature: A comparative analysis of unconditional cash transfers in Eastern Africa

Lassak,

Schmidt

2023

Economic Anthropology

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This article compares two East African unconditional cash transfer (UCT) programs and how they have been interpreted by their target populations. While the US‐American NGO GiveDirectly focuses on poor households in Western Kenya in an allegedly unbureaucratic and digital way, the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF) distributes cash transfers in a bureaucratic and analogue manner in Tanzania. While the narrative of “free money” instilled fears about occult actors and skepticism toward political hierarchies in some recipients, others considered UCTs as offering an opportunity to enlarge their individual freedom. We argue that this radical difference with regard to how our interlocutors interpreted UCTs was catalyzed by the portrayal of “free money” as a context‐independent carrier and store of value or, in other words, by UCT's socially produced “indeterminacy.”

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Expectations of Modernity: Myths and Meanings of Urban Life on the Zambian Copperbelt

Cited by 44 publications

References 0 publications

Africa's Next Debt Crisis: A Relational Comparison of Chinese and Western Lending to Zambia

Africa's Next Debt Crisis: A Relational Comparison of Chinese and Western Lending to Zambia

Social Significance of Kinship in the Bemba Speech Community

Free money's ideological nature: A comparative analysis of unconditional cash transfers in Eastern Africa

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