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Summary
This research programme aims to address new social movements and
organizational forms in Africa against the background of the continent’s
changing political cultures. It will provide a general, open-ended framework
for research aimed at answering a number of questions:
- why and how people seek modes of social, cultural and political expression
in new organizational forms;
- what the new developments are in the political cultures and governance
structures of the continent, and, more specifically, why democratization
processes have not been very successful;
- how insecurity takes on new forms and why certain violent conflicts
persist; and
- why ‘traditional’ ideologies and social mechanisms of mediation and
tolerance seem to diminish in force, be reinvented, or become problematic in
new contexts; how African populations struggle to keep their inherited
socio-cultural and survival mechanisms, and how and why they redefine ideals
of modernity, development and belonging in their own terms.
Read further.
The programme considers conditions of international flows of people,
resources and capital, Africa’s place in the global system, and the dynamics
of local ideologies, emerging social networks, political struggles and
cultural change. The research perspective is multi-disciplinary and the
approach interactionist: viewing history, structure and human agency as
interlocking factors. While the execution of the programme is based on
empirical academic research, cooperation is sought with policy-making
institutions and persons (NGOs, international organizations, ministries) to
develop specific research questions and approaches that may yield insights
that could be used in improving policy plans and initiatives. As to academic
exchange, the theme group’s programme will connect with African visiting
scholars and our existing partners in Africa.
Sub programmes (each sub programme consists of several research projects):
1. Changes
in political culture and the emergence of new social profiles/movements
2.
Liberalization and the remaking of the socio-political order
3.
Insecurity and conflict production
History of the research
group
ASC Researchers:
Jan Abbink,
Han van Dijk,
Stephen Ellis,
Piet Konings,
Benjamin Soares,
Klaas van Walraven
Head of the theme group: Jan Abbink
PhD's:
Abreham Alemu, André van Dokkum,
Berhanu Gebeyehu,
Margot Leegwater, Inge Ruigrok,
Martin van Vliet,
Lotje de Vries
Collaborating institutes:
Université de N’Djamena (Chad); Wageningen University and Research Centre;
Institute of Ethiopian Studies (AAU, Addis Ababa), Ethiopian Languages
Research Centre (AAU, Addis Ababa); Institute of Security Studies, Pretoria
& Cape Town (South Africa); Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherches sur les
Dynamiques Sociales et le Développement Locale (Niamey); Université Abdou
Moumouni (Niamey, Niger); Nederlands Instituut voor Zuidelijk Afrika
(Amsterdam); OSSREA (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia); Department of Religious
Studies, University of Jos (Nigeria).
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