Theorizing Media as/and Civil Society in Africa

Willems, Wendy

doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-8262-8_4

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Media actors frequently use descriptors such as ‘community media’ strategically to position themselves in uncertain and power-striated environments (see Brisset-Foucault, 2011). More broadly, concepts such as civil society (see Willems, 2014), citizenship, and even media itself (Slater, 2014: 52), which underpin normative models of community media, are themselves born out of a specific history of struggle and debate. In order to avoid unproductive analyses, it is important to consider the historical, social and political configurations under which these concepts get circulated, adopted and even instrumentalized.…”

Section: From Labels To Context To Practices: Articulating An Urban Pmentioning

confidence: 99%

From ‘animation’ to encounter: Community radio, sociability and urban life in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

Cante

2017

International Journal of Cultural Studies

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Drawing upon ethnographic research on community radio in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, this article argues that tracking production practices outside of the studio allows researchers to better capture radio’s entanglements with everyday urban life. This spatial reconsideration mirrors a conceptual move beyond community media labels and normative criteria, towards a privileging of context. To illustrate both points, the article centres around ‘animation,’ the practice of enlivening social situations. Animation is central to community radio in Abidjan, but ‘ animateurs’ also practise their trade in a multitude of venues and events around the city. Following animation’s movements between on- and off-air provides an understanding of how community radio is assembled as a porous ‘micro-public’, and insight into the particular kind of sociability that it produces. The article shows that while this sociability is tinged with the quest for status and social capital, it is mostly characterized by indeterminacy, and valued for the unforeseen encounters it can foster.

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Section: From Labels To Context To Practices: Articulating An Urban Pmentioning

confidence: 99%

From ‘animation’ to encounter: Community radio, sociability and urban life in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

Cante

2017

International Journal of Cultural Studies

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“…These approaches endorse an understanding of civil society organizations that emphasizes a move away from an institutional account of their effectiveness in relation to normative ideals, their strength or quantity or their role in policy dialogue, to a narrative about the people who are part of these organizations and their everyday practices (Baillie Smith & Jenkins ; Jenkins ; Long ; Obadare ). It is the experiences of the people who create, shape and embody civil society that are the focus (Obadare ), accentuating ideas of hiddeness (Havel ), context (Clark & Jones ), multiplicity (Fraser ; Willems ), connectivity (Featherstone ), contestation (Fraser ) and fluidity (Howell et al ). This resonates with the idea of using civil society as something ‘…to think with’ (Lewis p.584) and privileges the idea of searching for civil society in its ‘actual formation, rather than as a promised agenda for change’ (Mamdani p19).…”

Section: Reframing Civil Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Scholars of African civil society challenge Western concepts of associational life, arguing that ethno‐regional ties are neglected in many civil society theories and that dominant discourses fail to address the intricacies of African civil society (Adekson ; Konings ; Lewis ). More informal articulations of civil society are seen through examples of humour in Nigeria (Obadare ), kinship ties in Cameroon (Konings ) and the media (Willems ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Civil Society, Everyday Life and the Possibilities for Development Studies

Peck

2015

Geography Compass

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Civil society is one of the most contentious terms in political thought. There is considerable, and highly significant, difference between academic debate about the meaning of 'civil society' and the way the term is mobilized in international development discourse. In particular, narratives of civil society in international development are often dominated by reference to organizational descriptions and measurability.

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“…The concept of civil society rose to popularity in the late 1980s during the end of the Cold War, when various autocratic one-party regimes in Africa gradually gave way to political liberalizations and multiparty politics (Willems 2014, 46;Obadare 2014). During this period, Western donors increasingly sought to 'establish' or 'strengthen' the civil society of African countries, seeing it as both a bulwark against a 'bad' authoritarian state and an alternative to a 'reduced' state, with civil society taking over tasks normally done by the state, especially in the realm of service delivery (Willems 2014). These developments led to an explosion in the number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in many African contexts.…”

Section: Religion and Civil Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hurd observes that after secularization theories that predicted the global decline of religion were critiqued during the 1990s, scholars and practitioners increasingly focused on efforts to 'bring religion back' in and tends to overlook African organizations which do not easily fit Eurocentric ideals of civil society (cf. Garland 1999;Comaroff and Comaroff 1999, 22;Chabal and Daloz 1999, 17-18;Obadare 2011;Willems 2014). 17 David Herbert (2003; explains this uneasiness with regard to religion in relation to common views within social science about religion, where it is seen as a declining and inherently conservative and/or anti-democratic force.…”

Section: Religion and Civil Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

Regulating Religious Coexistence

Meinema¹

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This research would not have been possible without my research participants, whom I thank for so generously sharing their time, knowledge, struggles, and aspirations with me. I regard it as an exceptional privilege to be introduced to worlds that were previously largely unknown to me. I particularly appreciate those who have taken me along on their endeavours across various civil society settings in Malindi: I have learned so much from their incredible capacity to work with people from diverse institutional, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. I am also deeply grateful to all of those who supported me during this research project, welcoming me into their homes, their maskani, and their families. Although there are many people that I would like to thank by mentioning their names, they remain anonymous in this dissertation.On the level of scholarly support, I am indebted most of all to my supervisors, Birgit Meyer and Lucien van Liere. I cannot thank Birgit enough for seeing potential in me after I visited her office in Utrecht to discuss my plans for a PhD project with her in February 2014. I appreciate all the precious support, coaching, and feedback that she has given me, from the initial stage when this project was no more than a proposal that we eventually submitted to the Dutch Research Council (NWO), until the final edits were made to this thesis in May 2021. I also thank Birgit for reading so many drafts of lectures, chapters, blogs, and articles in between.I am also very appreciative of my second supervisor, Lucien van Liere, who always found a way to make time to discuss my project. I will always cherish our invigorating conversations next to Lucien's immense bookcase in his office in Utrecht, and the many trips we made to Ludwig for coffee. Lucien and I co-taught the course 'Religion and Conflict' at Utrecht University several times during my project, and I am also grateful to him for giving me a brilliant example of how teaching can be done in an interactive, engaged, and intellectually stimulating manner.In July 2016, at the outset of my project, I received a lot of help and feedback at the 'Muslims and Christians in Africa' summer school that was organized at the Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin. I had valuable conversations with

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Theorizing Media as/and Civil Society in Africa

Cited by 6 publications

References 60 publications

From ‘animation’ to encounter: Community radio, sociability and urban life in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

From ‘animation’ to encounter: Community radio, sociability and urban life in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

Civil Society, Everyday Life and the Possibilities for Development Studies

Regulating Religious Coexistence

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