Village Work : Development and Rural Statecraft in Twentieth-Century Ghana
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| Title: | Village Work : Development and Rural Statecraft in Twentieth-Century Ghana |
|---|---|
| Description: | A robust historical case study that demonstrates how village development became central to the rhetoric and practice of statecraft in rural Ghana.Combining oral histories with decades of archival material, Village Work formulates a sweeping history of twentieth-century statecraft that centers on the daily work of rural people, local officials, and family networks, rather than on the national governments and large-scale plans that often dominate development stories. Wiemers shows that developmentalism was not simply created by governments and imposed on the governed; instead, it was jointly constructed through interactions between them.The book contributes to the historiographies of development and statecraft in Africa and the Global South byemphasizing the piecemeal, contingent, and largely improvised ways both development and the state are comprised and experiencedproviding new entry points into longstanding discussions about developmental power and discourseunsettling common ideas about how and by whom states are madeexposing the importance of unpaid labor in mediating relationships between governments and the governedshowing how state engagement could both exacerbate and disrupt inequitiesDespite massive changes in twentieth-century political structures—the imposition and destruction of colonial rule, nationalist plans for pan-African solidarity and modernization, multiple military coups, and the rise of neoliberal austerity policies—unremunerated labor and demonstrations of local leadership have remained central tools by which rural Ghanaians have interacted with the state. Grounding its analysis of statecraft in decades of daily negotiations over budgets and bureaucracy, the book tells the stories of developers who decided how and where projects would be sited, of constituents who performed labor, and of a chief and his large cadre of educated children who met and shaped demands for local leaders. For a variety of actors, invoking “the village” became a convenient way to allocate or attract limited resources, to highlight or downplay struggles over power, and to forge national and international networks. |
| Authors: | Alice Wiemers |
| Resource Type: | eBook. |
| Subjects: | Local government--Ghana, Economic development--Ghana, Central-local government relations--Ghana |
| Categories: | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Development / General, HISTORY / Africa / West, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Developing & Emerging Countries, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Cultural & Ethnic Studies / African Studies |
| Database: | eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) |
| FullText | Links: – Type: ebook-pdf – Type: ebook-epub Text: Availability: 0 |
|---|---|
| Header | DbId: nlebk DbLabel: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) An: 2943998 RelevancyScore: 1103 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: eBook PubTypeId: ebook PreciseRelevancyScore: 1103.19409179688 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Village Work : Development and Rural Statecraft in Twentieth-Century Ghana – Name: Abstract Label: Description Group: Ab Data: A robust historical case study that demonstrates how village development became central to the rhetoric and practice of statecraft in rural Ghana.Combining oral histories with decades of archival material, Village Work formulates a sweeping history of twentieth-century statecraft that centers on the daily work of rural people, local officials, and family networks, rather than on the national governments and large-scale plans that often dominate development stories. Wiemers shows that developmentalism was not simply created by governments and imposed on the governed; instead, it was jointly constructed through interactions between them.The book contributes to the historiographies of development and statecraft in Africa and the Global South byemphasizing the piecemeal, contingent, and largely improvised ways both development and the state are comprised and experiencedproviding new entry points into longstanding discussions about developmental power and discourseunsettling common ideas about how and by whom states are madeexposing the importance of unpaid labor in mediating relationships between governments and the governedshowing how state engagement could both exacerbate and disrupt inequitiesDespite massive changes in twentieth-century political structures—the imposition and destruction of colonial rule, nationalist plans for pan-African solidarity and modernization, multiple military coups, and the rise of neoliberal austerity policies—unremunerated labor and demonstrations of local leadership have remained central tools by which rural Ghanaians have interacted with the state. Grounding its analysis of statecraft in decades of daily negotiations over budgets and bureaucracy, the book tells the stories of developers who decided how and where projects would be sited, of constituents who performed labor, and of a chief and his large cadre of educated children who met and shaped demands for local leaders. For a variety of actors, invoking “the village” became a convenient way to allocate or attract limited resources, to highlight or downplay struggles over power, and to forge national and international networks. – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Alice+Wiemers%22">Alice Wiemers</searchLink> – Name: TypePub Label: Resource Type Group: TypPub Data: eBook. – Name: Subject Label: Subjects Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Local+government--Ghana%22">Local government--Ghana</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Economic+development--Ghana%22">Economic development--Ghana</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Central-local+government+relations--Ghana%22">Central-local government relations--Ghana</searchLink> – Name: SubjectBISAC Label: Categories Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22BUSINESS+%26+ECONOMICS+%2F+Development+%2F+General%22">BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Development / General</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22HISTORY+%2F+Africa+%2F+West%22">HISTORY / Africa / West</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22POLITICAL+SCIENCE+%2F+Colonialism+%26+Post-Colonialism%22">POLITICAL SCIENCE / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22SOCIAL+SCIENCE+%2F+Developing+%26+Emerging+Countries%22">SOCIAL SCIENCE / Developing & Emerging Countries</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22SOCIAL+SCIENCE+%2F+Cultural+%26+Ethnic+Studies+%2F+African+Studies%22">SOCIAL SCIENCE / Cultural & Ethnic Studies / African Studies</searchLink> |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Classifications: – Code: 320.809667 Scheme: ddc Type: prePub Languages: – Code: eng Text: English Subjects: – SubjectFull: Local government--Ghana Type: general – SubjectFull: Economic development--Ghana Type: general – SubjectFull: Central-local government relations--Ghana Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Village Work : Development and Rural Statecraft in Twentieth-Century Ghana Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Alice Wiemers – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Alice Wiemers IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 01 Type: published Y: 2021 – D: 18 M: 06 Type: profile Y: 2021 Identifiers: – Type: isbn-print Value: 9780821424452 – Type: isbn-print Value: 9780821424667 – Type: isbn-electronic Value: 9780821447376 Titles: – TitleFull: Village Work : Development and Rural Statecraft in Twentieth-Century Ghana Type: main |
| ResultId | 1 |
