African futures : essays on crisis, emergence, and possibility /

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Bibliographic Details
Imprint:Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, [2016]
©2016
Description:1 online resource
Language:English
Subject:
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11269844
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Other authors / contributors:Goldstone, Brian, editor.
Obarrio, Juan, editor.
American Anthropological Association. Annual Meeting (109th : 2010 : New Orleans, La.)
ISBN:9780226402413
022640241X
9780226402246
022640224X
9780226402383
022640238X
Notes:Most contributions derive from an invited session on "African Futures in Crisis", held at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting in New Orleans in 2010.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed December 8, 2016).
Summary:Civil wars, corporate exploitation, AIDS, and Ebola but also democracy, burgeoning cities, and unprecedented communication and mobility: the future of Africa has never been more uncertain. Indeed, that future is one of the most complex issues in contemporary anthropology, as evidenced by the incredible wealth of ideas offered in this landmark volume. A consortium comprised of some of the most important scholars of Africa today, this book surveys an intellectual landscape of opposed perspectives in order to think within the contradictions that characterize this central question: Where is Africa headed? The experts in this book address Africa's future as it is embedded within various social and cultural forms emerging on the continent today: the reconfiguration of the urban, the efflorescence of signs and wonders and gospels of prosperity, the assorted techniques of legality and illegality, lotteries and Ponzi schemes, apocalyptic visions, a yearning for exile, and many other phenomena. Bringing together social, political, religious, and economic viewpoints, the book reveals not one but multiple prospects for the future of Africa. In doing so, it offers a pathbreaking model of pluralistic and open-ended thinking and a powerful tool for addressing the vexing uncertainties that underlie so many futures around the world.
Other form:Print version: African futures. Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2016 9780226402246 022640224X