Overview
- Brings together conceptual debates based on case studies on the nature of state-building in Africa
- Includes case studies from Sudan, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Burundi, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa and Senegal
- Offers an alternative way of thinking about state-building and structural change that goes beyond the system-based approaches that dominate scholarship on democratization and political systems
Part of the book series: Gender, Development and Social Change (GDSC)
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About this book
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 basisfor 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.
Chapters 3, 5, and 6 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
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Keywords
Table of contents (11 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Reviews
"This book is an important contribution by young African scholars and practitioners on current (and age old) challenges on the continent. Its key strength lies in the intersectional approach it adopts to assessing youth-led mass protests attempts to dislodge and transform current formations of State power across the continent, captured as they are by corporate, securocrat and local elite alliances and interests. Given that mass protests are becoming in many instances far more effective than elections in removing autocratic rulers, it is necessary to draw a spotlight on them to understand their inherent strengths and weaknesses. This book says what needs to be said at this moment in our history. It is a bold, and timely intervention."
—Sarah Mukasa, Deputy Director, Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa
"In an era where technology and state capture coupled with increased surveillance and erosions of rights are all moving at lightning speed on the African continent, young womxn are on the frontlines speaking out against injustices, charting new paths, experimenting with creative tactics and embracing informal organising models as opposed to those of formal NGOs. This edited collection is timely in providing a window into the current opportunities and challenges that arise in confronting state power on these terms."
—Shereen Essof, Executive Director, Just Associates
Editors and Affiliations
About the editor
Awino Okech is a Lecturer at the Centre for Gender Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), UK.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Gender, Protests and Political Change in Africa
Editors: Awino Okech
Series Title: Gender, Development and Social Change
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46343-4
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-46342-7Published: 04 July 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-46345-8Published: 05 July 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-46343-4Published: 03 July 2020
Series ISSN: 2730-7328
Series E-ISSN: 2730-7336
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVI, 258
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: African Politics, Democracy, Politics and Gender, Governance and Government, Development and Gender