Just published/vient de paraitre: States at Work. Dynamics of African Bureaucracies, Bierschenk & Olivier de Sardan eds.

‘States at Work’ explores the mundane practices of state-making in Africa by focussing on the daily functioning of public services and the practices of civil servants. Adopting mainly an ethnographic approach as a basis for theorizing, the authors deal with topics including: bureaucratic cultures and practical norms, operational routines in offices, career patterns and modes of appointment;  how bureaucrats themselves perceive and deliver goods and services and interact with service users; the accumulation of public administration reforms and how the different bureaucratic corps react to the ‘good governance’ discourse and new public management policies; the consequences of these reforms for the daily working of state bureaucracies and for the civil servants’ identities and modes of accountability;  and the space that exists for bottom-up micro-reforms that build on local innovations or informal arrangements.

Thomas Bierschenk is Professor of Anthropology and Modern African Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany. He has published widely on politics, the state and development in West and Central Africa.
Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan lives in Niger and works at the Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherche sur les Dynamiques Sociales et le Développement Local (LASDEL) on the delivery of public and collective goods in West Africa. He is also emeritus research director at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)  and professor of anthropology at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), France.

Contributors include Gerhard Anders (Edinburgh), Isaline Bergamaschi (Bogota), Giorgio Blundo (Marseille), Hélène Charton (Bordeaux), Andreas Eckert (Berlin), Oumarou Hamani (Niamey), Azizou Chabi Imorou (Cotonou), Carola Lentz  (Mainz), José-María Muñoz (Edinburgh), Michael Roll (Madison), Ole Therkildsen (Copenhagen) and Chris Willott (London).

Readership: Anthropologists and political scientists, PhD student, and all interested in politics and the state in Africa and beyond as well as in the comparative functioning of public services.
Keywords: Public service, administration, public goods, bureaucracy, reform, development, governance, ethnography, Africa;  African Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science

Table of content

·         African Bureaucracies in Comparative Perspective

·         Studying the Dynamics of African Bureaucracies. An Introduction to States at Work (Thomas Bierschenk and Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan)

·         Ethnographies of Public Services in Africa: An Emerging Research Paradigm (Thomas Bierschenk and Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan)

·         Seeing like a State Agent: The Ethnography of Reform in Senegal’s Forestry Services (Giorgio Blundo)

·         Factionalism and Staff Success in a Nigerian University: A Departmental Case Study (Chris Willott)

·         Working in Neopatrimonial Settings: Public Sector Staff Perceptions in Tanzania and Uganda (Ole Therkildsen)

·         « We make do and keep going! » Inventive Practices and Ordered Informality in the Functioning of the District Courts in Niamey and Zinder (Niger) (Oumarou Hamani)

·         « I take an oath to the state, not the government »: Career Trajectories and Professional Ethics of Ghanaian Public Servants (Carola Lentz)

·         « We must run while others walk »: African Civil Servants, State Ideologies and Bureaucratic Practices in Tanzania, from the 1950s to the 1970s (Andreas Eckert)

·         Sedimentation, Fragmentation and Normative Double-Binds in (West) African Public Services (Thomas Bierschenk)

·         The Politics of Reform:  A Case Study of Bureaucracy at the Ministry of Basic Education in Cameroon (Hélène Charton)

·         Building State Capacities? The Case of the Poverty Reduction Unit in Mali (Isaline Bergamaschi)

·         A Breeding Ground for Revenue Reliability? Cameroonian Veterinary Agents and Tax Officials in the Face of Reform (José-María Muñoz)

·         Old-school Bureaucrats and Technocrats in Malawi: Civil Service Reform in Practice (Gerhard Anders

·         Teachers Unions and the Selective Appropriation of Public Service Reforms in Benin (Azizou Chabi Imorou)

·         The State that Works: A ‘Pockets of Effectiveness’ Perspective on Nigeria and Beyond (Michael Roll)

·         The Delivery State in Africa. Interface Bureaucrats, Professional Cultures and the Bureaucratic Mode of Governance (Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan)

Univ.-Prof. Thomas Bierschenk
http://www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de/171.php
flyer_States at Work

Conference: African Thoughts on (Neo-) Colonial Worlds: Steps towards an Intellectual History of Africa

Call for contributions to the conference:
African Thoughts on (Neo-) Colonial Worlds: Steps towards an Intellectual History of Africa
6.-7.11.2014
Department of African Studies, University of Vienna, Austria

Call for contributions:
“African Thoughts on (Neo-) Colonial Worlds: Steps towards an Intellectual History of Africa” brings together several interrelated domains rarely associated with our neighboring continent, mainly the history of its ideas and its thinkers. Asking for Africa`s role in shaping the world of the twentieth century and its world view, the conference connects the global historical questioning of colonialism and imperialism with the interests of intellectual history.
Intellectual history is a field still primarily connected with Western thought. During the last two decades there was a move towards a more globally informed kind of perspective which had some successes (extending its focus to include Asian thinkers), but Africa is still rarely treated in those debates and African thinkers tend to be marginalized or ignored in their originality. It is time to challenge this state of affairs, for African thinkers of the twentieth century have had a lot to say about the nature and causes of global inequality – and they still do. Contributions shall approach their topics from one of the two perspectives described below.
Selected African writers of historic stature – stemming from various African countries – should be analyzed both as makers of history in their times and as thinkers of history and interpreters of the historical process which is what makes them meaningful and influential beyond their lifetimes. The conference shall lead to a comparative view on their differing analysis of colonial and neo-colonial world orders. Additionally, analyses of specific issues relevant to African thought should offer a further layer to the debates at the conference. Therefore, we welcome contributions dealing with both, particular intellectual personalities and their work, as well as interrogations of specific aspects of African intellectual history, such as the role of power and privilege in knowledge production, questions of epistemology in an African context, the role of African theoretical contributions in scientific disciplines.

Time frame:
Submission of abstracts: 30.04.2014
Selection of abstracts: 31.05.2014
Registration (without presentation): 30.09.2014
Please submit your abstract with a short CV to Miša Krenčeyová, michaela.krenceyova@univie.ac.at and Arno Sonderegger, arno.sonderegger@univie.ac.at

The travel costs of a limited number of participants can be covered, at least in part. If your institution does not cover your travel and participation, please approach us. The respective selection will be done until the 31st of May, 2014.

Call_for_Contributions_African_Intellectual_History_Nov_2014

Offre de poste – MCF ANTHROPOLOGIE

Poste(s) au fil de l’eau Enseignants-chercheurs :

Section(s) : 19   20

MCF

I.E.P D’AIX-EN-PROVENCE

Référence GALAXIE n° 4028

(date de clôture : 14/03/2014)

Consulter la fiche de
poste<https://www.galaxie.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/ensup/ListesPostesPublies/FIDIS/0130221V/FOPC_0130221V_4028.pdf>

Bourses Palladio 2014

La Fondation Palladio, sous l’égide de la Fondation de France, accompagne les jeunes générations depuis 2008 en leur donnant les moyens de mener à bien leurs projets de formation ou de recherche (doctorale ou post-doctorale) dans les domaines liés à l’industrie immobilière et à la construction de la ville et des territoires.

La Fondation Palladio a décidé d’octroyer en 2014 dix bourses de 10.000 €* à des étudiants, chercheurs et jeunes professionnels qui, dans le cadre de votre Université, peuvent être :
– des étudiants de Master désirant poursuivre leurs études en 2014-2015, en France ou à l’étranger, par une formation complémentaire dans les domaines précisés ci-dessus ou par une thèse
– des doctorants en aménagement, anthropologie, architecture, droit, économétrie, économie, économie urbaine, finance, géographie, gestion, management, philosophie politique, sciences politiques, sociologie, urbanisme
– des chercheurs dans le cadre de leur recherche post-doctorale

*(sous réserve des dispositions des articles 5.2 in fine et 7.3 al.1 du règlement général 2014)

La clôture de l’appel à candidatures est fixé au 14 mars 2014.
Comment déposer une candidature ?
– Le dossier de candidature et son règlement sont téléchargeables sur www.fondationpalladio.fr, rubrique bourses.
– Le projet du candidat devra être conçu sous le parrainage d’un établissement d’enseignement supérieur et de recherche français ou étranger et/ou d’une entreprise du secteur.

Appel à communication » Les normes corporelles comme enjeu d’altérité »

Trois unités de recherche, l’Urmis, le Lapcos et le Lamhess sont à l’initiative de ce colloque pluridisciplinaire qui se déroulera à l’Université Nice Sophia Antipolis les 9-10 octobre 2014 sur « Les normes corporelles comme enjeu d’altérité ». Au croisement de la sociologie, de l’anthropologie, de l’histoire et de la psychologie, ce colloque a pour objectif de susciter un dialogue entre disciplines et champs de recherche autour de la question du corps et des normes corporelles. Il propose plus précisément d’explorer les processus de régulation sociale des normes corporelles sous l’angle de la (re)production des différences et de l’altérité. Son objectif est d’engager une réflexion sur le corps comme lieu d’imposition et/ou de subversion de normes corporelles au sein des rapports sociaux de sexe/genre, de classe et interethniques/de « race », mais aussi en lien avec d’autres critères tels que l’âge, le handicap, la religion ou l’orientation sexuelle.

Date limite pour l’envoi des propositions de communication : 28 Mars 2014

Les propositions de communication (au format doc ou pdf) comporteront un titre et un résumé de 2000 signes environ. Il devra être précisé dans quel axe elles s’insèrent.

Elles sont à déposer sur la plateforme : http://norm-corpo-2014.sciencesconf.org

Adresse-mail de contact : norm-corpo-2014@sciencesconf.org

Après évaluation, les réponses du comité scientifique seront communiquées pour le 15 mai 2014

Le colloque aura lieu à Nice les 9 et 10 octobre 2014.

EADI Publication Digest for 14/02/2014

Contents:

• Inequality of Opportunity in Access to Basic Services Among Egyptian Children
• Creating More and Better Jobs : The Defining Issue of Our Time
• Poor Trends – The Pace of Poverty Reduction after the Millennium Development Agenda
• Solidarity Intervention – An Ethnography of Nonviolent Transnational Contention in the West Bank
• The future of human rights protection in the new Libya: prospects and challenges (PDF)
• Behind the Pictures : Understanding Private Development Initiatives
• Introducing and Scaling Up Sustainable Water and Sanitation Technologies (Webinar Video)
• From Urban Systems to Sustainable Competitive Metropolitan Regions – Essays in honour of Leo van den Berg (pdf)
• Missing the Very Poor with Development Interventions: Results from the PADev Methodology in Burkina Faso (pdf)
• Project ENERGY FOR ALL 2030 comes to an end — Institute of Sustainability — UPC. Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya BarcelonaTech.

Groupe de réflexion sur le Brésil contemporain (19 février, Paris)

Groupe de Réflexion sur le Brésil Contemporain
Mercredi 19 février 2014 à 17h, en salle 1, 190 Avenue de France, Paris 13e

Gustavo Onto, doctorant du PPGAS – Museu Nacional de l’UFRJ, chercheur accueilli par l’IRIS/EHESS
Rendre la concurrence visible : une étude ethnographique de la politique anti-trust au Brésil

Séminaire Histoire et anthropologie de l’Amérique latine: « Propriété, appartenance territoriale et droits politiques en Amérique portugaise (XVIIIe siècle) » (20 février, Paris)

Séminaire commun CERMA/CRBC
Anne-Marie-Losonczy, Jacques Poloni-Simard, Claudia Damasceno
Histoire et anthropologie de l’Amérique du Sud

Jeudi 20 février – 15h-17h
Salle 4 – 105, Boulevard Raspail – Paris 6e

Claudia Damasceno, EHESS-CRBC-Mondes américains
et
Francisco Andrade, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto

Propriété, appartenance territoriale et droits politiques en Amérique portugaise (XVIIIe siècle)

Registration open for the 14th EADI General Conference on “Responsible Development in a Polycentric World », (23 – 26 June 2014), Bonn

We are very pleased to announce that registration is now open for the 14th EADI General Conference, and we invite you register online at www.gc2014.org/registration. We recommend you to book the Conference Package, which includes three nights’ accommodation (Monday 23th, Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th June), all meals and full access to all Conference sessions. Early Bird Rate ends 31 May.

The theme of the conference is “Responsible Development in a Polycentric World: Inequality, Citizenship and the Middle Classes” and we have an exciting range of over 60 panels and working group sessions (http://www.gc2014.org).

We will be holding a book exhibition on the Tuesday and Wednesday, where publishers, NGOs and research organisations are showcasing research, publications and items of interest to the development community. Please see the conditions here: www.gc2014.org/registration/book-exhibition

Among the key speakers are:
Prof. Dr. Isa Baud, EADI President
Dr. Nancy Birdsall, President of Centre for Global Development
Dr. Francois Bourguignon, Paris School of Economics
Prof. Jie Chen, University of Idaho
Olivier Consolo, Former irector of the European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development (CONCORD)
Dr. Francisco Ferreira, Acting Chief Economist for World Bank Africa
Prof. Jayati Ghosh, Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Dr. Noeleen Heyzer, Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General and former Executive Secretary of ESCAP
Prof. Pierre Jacquet, President of the Global Development Network
Prof. Raphael Kaplinsky, Open University in the United Kingdom
Prof. Louka Katseli, University of Athens and former Greek Minister of Economy, Shipping and Competitiveness
Prof. Peter Knorringa, International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam
Assoc. Prof. Adrian Gurza Lavalle, Sao Paulo University
Prof. Dr. Dirk Messner, Director of the German Development Institute
Dr. Branko Milanovic, Lead Economist at the World Bank
Jürgen Nimptsch, Mayor of the City of Bonn
Dr. Jose Gabriel Palma, Faculty of Economics, Cambridge University
Dr. Angelika Schwall-Düren, Minister for Federal Affairs, Europe and the Media
Bright Simons, President of mPedigree-Network

Journée d’étude internationale « America Latina-Francia, violencia, migración, participación política » (21 février, Saint Denis)

Cette journée internationale d’études et de débats analyse les violences dans une perspective de genre. Elle s’inscrit dans le cadre d’un échange entre l’Université d’UnCuyo (Mendoza Argentine) et l’Université de Paris 8. Les universitaires argentines, engagées également dans des associations féministes, présenteront une conceptualisation de leurs expériences, illustrées par des vidéos et des témoignages.
Nous mettrons leurs études en résonance avec d’autres contextes latino-américains et européens, prenant en compte la diversité des terrains. La problématique de la frontière entre le Mexique et les Etats-Unis cristallise les effets concrets de la violence et les silences qu’elle impose selon des modalités différentes de ce qui se passe plus au Sud, où seront discutés l’emprise historique de la dictature, d’une part, la globalisation de l’immigration
et des trafics humains, d’autre part. Les terrains français permettront d’analyser d’autres situations, d’autres postures tout en remettant en débat l’ensemble des questionnements, au-delà des différences structurelles.
Le public sera invité à favoriser ces questionnements.

Flyers violence migrat fev 2014