Making modernity asscountable: A case study of youth in Mozambique

According to the philosopher Stephen Toulmin there is a standard account of modernity which gives primacy to the written over the oral, the universal over the particular, the general over the local and the timeless over the timely. This paper draws from Toulmin to argue that accounts of modernity in Africa are based on the assumptions of the standard account of modernity to deny modernity to Africa even though these assumptions inhere in actual practices as the analysis of the work of a non-governmental organization operating in Mozambique seeks to document. The paper will therefore argue that modernity is real and that it shows its reality in the way in which particular social conditions and categories are done, i.e. through meanings, methods, motives and the management of the social relationship which they bring forth.Segundo o filósofo Stephen Toulmin, existe um padrão de modernidade que dá primazia à escrita sobre o oral, ao universal sobre o particular, ao geral sobre o local e ao atemporal sobre o temporal. Este artigo baseia-se em Toulmin para argumentar que a avaliação deste processo em África se baseia em pressupostos padronizados para negar a possibilidade mesma da modernidade no continente. Contudo, estes pressupostos são inerentes a práticas reais, como é aqui demonstrado através da análise do trabalho de uma organização não governamental em funcionamento em Moçambique. Este artigo argumenta que a modernidade é real e e concretizada em determinadas condições sociais e categorias, ou seja, através dos significados, métodos, motivações e gestão das relações sociais expressos nessas condições

Accounting for disaster: memories of war in Mozambique

'Dieser Beitrag versucht, über die Beschreibung und Analyse von Erinnerungen an den Bürgerkrieg in Mosambik zum Verständnis des Begriffs der Katastrophe beizutragen. Nach Ansicht des Autors werden Katastrophen nicht durch Extremereignisse als solche konstituiert. Diese werden erst zu einer Katastrophe durch die Art und Weise, wie sie den gewohnten Verlauf des Alltagslebens - verstanden im phänomenologischen Sinn einer nicht hinterfragten, vertrauten Lebenswelt - zerstören. Die Untersuchungsergebnisse basieren auf Forschungen unter Kriegsflüchtlingen in Mosambik, in der Nähe einer Provinzhauptstadt im Süden des Landes. Zur Analyse der Interviews wurden konversationsanalytische Verfahren angewandt; diese erlauben ein Verständnis des Alltags als praktische Errungenschaft von Individuen.' (Autorenreferat)'This paper seeks to understand the notion of disaster through the description and analysis of memories of a civil war in Mozambique. The paper claims that extreme events as such do not constitute disaster. Rather, it is the way in which they disrupt everyday life, understood in the phenomenological sense of a taken for granted world, that may turn them into a disaster. The findings are based on research carried out in Mozambique among war refugees on the periphery of a major town in the south of the country. The interviews are analysed using techniques drawn from conversational analysis to recover the sense in which everyday life is a practical accomplishment of individuals.' (author's abstract)

The Politics of Negative Peace: Mozambique in the Aftermath of the Rome Cease-Fire Agreement

Abstract: This paper discusses the Mozambican post-conflict order that ensued from the Rome peace negotiations. Drawing from an analytical framework that posits a tension between negative and positive peace, it argues that the peace achieved by the Rome negotiations may not be as stable as is generally assumed. The reasons for this are to be found in the negotiation process itself. The paper suggests that peace was bought from the warring parties in exchange for the promise of development aid. While this may have been necessary to bring the conflict to an end, it may have been at the expense of a long-lasting peace that might have included, for example, the settlement of human rights issues

When the post-revolutionary state decentralizes: the reorganization of political structures and administration in Mozambique

Os autores deste artigo situam-se numa perspectiva analítica que define o clientelismo em África como um recurso potencial para a participação e responsabilização política, a fim de reflectir sobre a lógica da descentralização em Moçambique nas condições do falhanço social e económico do projecto revolucionário da Frelimo. Nos últimos quinze anos, desde que se introduziu um programa de reajustamento estrutural sob os auspícios do FMI e do Banco Mundial, Moçambique tem estado a tentar desmantelar o seu altamente centralizado processo político, num contexto em que o auxílio ao desenvolvimento tem registado uma influência crescente no funcionamento das instituições do Estado.The authors of this article draw from an analytical perspective which defines clientelism in Africa as a potential resource for political participation and accountability, in order to then discuss the logic of decentralization in Mozambique under the conditions of the economic and social failure of Frelimo's revolutionary project. Over the past fifteen years, since the introduction of a structural adjustment project under the auspices of the IMF and the World Bank, Mozambique has been attempting to dismantle its highly centralized political process against the background of an ever increasing influence of development aid on the functioning of state institutions.Les auteurs de cet article se situent dans une perspective analytique qui définit le clientelisme en Afrique come une ressource potentielle pour la participation et responsabilisation politique, pour réfléchir dans cette perspective sur la décentralization au Moçambique dans les conditions de la faillite sociale et économique du project révolutionnaire de la Frelimo. Dans les derniers quinze ans, pendant qu'était introduit un programme d'ajustement structurel sous les auspices du FMI et de la Banque Mondiale, Moçambique a essayé le démantèlement de son processus politique hautement centralisé, dans un contexte où l'aide au développement a connu une influence croissante dans le fonctionnement des institutions de l'État

When the post-revolutionary state decentralizes: the reorganization of political structures and administration in Mozambique

Os autores deste artigo situam-se numa perspectiva analítica que define o clientelismo em África como um recurso potencial para a participação e responsabilização política, a fim de reflectir sobre a lógica da descentralização em Moçambique nas condições do falhanço social e económico do projecto revolucionário da Frelimo. Nos últimos quinze anos, desde que se introduziu um programa de reajustamento estrutural sob os auspícios do FMI e do Banco Mundial, Moçambique tem estado a tentar desmantelar o seu altamente centralizado processo político, num contexto em que o auxílio ao desenvolvimento tem registado uma influência crescente no funcionamento das instituições do Estado.The authors of this article draw from an analytical perspective which defines clientelism in Africa as a potential resource for political participation and accountability, in order to then discuss the logic of decentralization in Mozambique under the conditions of the economic and social failure of Frelimo's revolutionary project. Over the past fifteen years, since the introduction of a structural adjustment project under the auspices of the IMF and the World Bank, Mozambique has been attempting to dismantle its highly centralized political process against the background of an ever increasing influence of development aid on the functioning of state institutions.Les auteurs de cet article se situent dans une perspective analytique qui définit le clientelisme en Afrique come une ressource potentielle pour la participation et responsabilisation politique, pour réfléchir dans cette perspective sur la décentralization au Moçambique dans les conditions de la faillite sociale et économique du project révolutionnaire de la Frelimo. Dans les derniers quinze ans, pendant qu'était introduit un programme d'ajustement structurel sous les auspices du FMI et de la Banque Mondiale, Moçambique a essayé le démantèlement de son processus politique hautement centralisé, dans un contexte où l'aide au développement a connu une influence croissante dans le fonctionnement des institutions de l'État

When the post-revolutionary state decentralizes: the reorganization of political structures and administration in Mozambique

Os autores deste artigo situam-se numa perspectiva analítica que define o clientelismo em África como um recurso potencial para a participação e responsabilização política, a fim de reflectir sobre a lógica da descentralização em Moçambique nas condições do falhanço social e económico do projecto revolucionário da Frelimo. Nos últimos quinze anos, desde que se introduziu um programa de reajustamento estrutural sob os auspícios do FMI e do Banco Mundial, Moçambique tem estado a tentar desmantelar o seu altamente centralizado processo político, num contexto em que o auxílio ao desenvolvimento tem registado uma influência crescente no funcionamento das instituições do Estado.The authors of this article draw from an analytical perspective which defines clientelism in Africa as a potential resource for political participation and accountability, in order to then discuss the logic of decentralization in Mozambique under the conditions of the economic and social failure of Frelimo's revolutionary project. Over the past fifteen years, since the introduction of a structural adjustment project under the auspices of the IMF and the World Bank, Mozambique has been attempting to dismantle its highly centralized political process against the background of an ever increasing influence of development aid on the functioning of state institutions.Les auteurs de cet article se situent dans une perspective analytique qui définit le clientelisme en Afrique come une ressource potentielle pour la participation et responsabilisation politique, pour réfléchir dans cette perspective sur la décentralization au Moçambique dans les conditions de la faillite sociale et économique du project révolutionnaire de la Frelimo. Dans les derniers quinze ans, pendant qu'était introduit un programme d'ajustement structurel sous les auspices du FMI et de la Banque Mondiale, Moçambique a essayé le démantèlement de son processus politique hautement centralisé, dans un contexte où l'aide au développement a connu une influence croissante dans le fonctionnement des institutions de l'État

New Area Studies as an Emerging Discipline. The Way Ahead for Southeast Asian Studies

Southeast Asian Studies and Area Studies have a rather weak position in German academia, according to Vincent Houben, due to internal, but especially external institutional factors, with universities being part of a neoliberal machinery. As a field of study, Area Studies is more financially vulnerable than a discipline, and constantly has to prove itself academically, which is why Houben calls for a disciplinary reinvention as a singular New Area Studies. Area Studies already has most of the important characteristics that make a discipline, but lacks the necessary coherence. Houben proposes the advancement of middle-range theories and Situational Analysis as a meta-methodology to solve this issue and draws attention to the importance of cooperation among scholars. Ramon Guillermo and Elísio Macamo offer different perspectives on this proposal. Guillermo criticises Houben’s piece as being too rooted in an internal Western conversation that reflects power relations in Southeast Asian Studies. Similarly, Macamo warns against exerting Western dominance through an approach such as Houben’s, while also arguing that the interdisciplinary integration of Area Studies has actually given it significant symbolic capital. &nbsp

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