The Oxford Handbook Of The Sociology Of Africa

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The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Africa

Author : R. Sooryamoorthy
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197608493
Total Pages : 585 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (976 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Africa by : R. Sooryamoorthy

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Africa written by R. Sooryamoorthy and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023 with total page 585 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Africa presents to a broad readership an accessible, comprehensive, up to date, and topical comparative analysis of sociological thinking in Africa. Sociological discourse about African societies has been challenging and difficult, due to a lack of both comprehensive analyses and holistic sociological evidence that covers Africa from past to present times. This Handbook brings together latest analyses of sociological phenomena from the best scholars working on numerous thematic areas. It provides contributions that locates African sociological thinking in historical context and takes a critical look at its current manifestations across the continent. This collection builds upon an existing body of literature which has demonstrated that while the analysis of African societies has long been an item on the agenda of sociologists worldwide, advances of the decolonial critique made notably by African scholars in Africa enhances the scholarship of the sociology of Africa. Thus, the collection is premised upon the understanding that in order to understand the sociology of Africa as significant intervention, the participation and representation of African ways of knowing and doing is a critical starting point. This Handbook comprises a series of scholarly and interdisciplinary perspectives on current debates over how best to unpack sociological imaginations in African context. The scholarly contributions, therefore, are based on both perspectives illustrating the importance of specificity in sociological phenomenon. The Handbook is arranged in seven parts: Context and Perspectives; Race, Ethnicity, and Religion; Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectionality; Medical Sociology: Political Economy and Development; Crime and Violence; and The Family and Education. Premised on the importance of African ways of knowing and doing, these chapters offer sociologists, researchers, and students an invaluable starting point for a fuller understanding of African sociology.

The Oxford Handbook of Modern African History

Author : John Parker
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191667544
Total Pages : 560 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (916 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Modern African History by : John Parker

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Modern African History written by John Parker and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2013-10-10 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Modern African History represents an invaluable tool for historians and others in the field of African studies. This collection of essays, produced by some of the finest scholars currently working in the field, provides the latest insights into, and interpretations of, the history of Africa - a continent with a rich and complex past. An understanding of this past is essential to gain perspective on Africa's current challenges, and this accessible and comprehensive volume will allow readers to explore various aspects - political, economic, social, and cultural - of the continent's history over the last two hundred years. Since African history first emerged as a serious academic endeavour in the 1950s and 1960s, it has undergone numerous shifts in terms of emphasis and approach, changes brought about by political and economic exigencies and by ideological debates. This multi-faceted Handbook is essential reading for anyone with an interest in those debates, and in Africa and its peoples. While the focus is determinedly historical, anthropology, geography, literary criticism, political science and sociology are all employed in this ground-breaking study of Africa's past.

The Oxford Handbook of the African Sahel

Author : Leonardo A. Villalón
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198816952
Total Pages : 833 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (988 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of the African Sahel by : Leonardo A. Villalón

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the African Sahel written by Leonardo A. Villalón and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-01-07 with total page 833 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Bringing together a wide diversity of authors based on three continents and from different disciplinary backgrounds, this book offers analyses of a wide range of factors that characterize and that are shaping the future of the African Sahel. In forty chapters, organized in nine sections, the book examines this complex and rapidly changing region on multiple dimensions. Collectively, the book attempts to offer an understanding of the specificity of the Sahel, and to examine its core characteristics as shaped by the geographic, cultural, and political parameters that define it. Following a series of chapters focused on the shaping of the Sahelian space as a region, six chapters explore the distinct national trajectories of the countries of the political Sahel: Senegal, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Chad. The extraordinary combination of environmental, economic and political challenges, and the ways in which Sahelian states and societies have responded, are the primary focus of the three subsequent sections, while the various parameters of the lived realities of these societies in motion are explored in the four final sections of the book. Transversally throughout, the chapters aim to offer an interdisciplinary and holistic view of the challenges and the dynamics that are shaping a region at an historical crossroads, and an understanding of the many factors that feed and perpetuate its vulnerabilities and fragilities, as well as its sources of resilience"--

The Oxford Handbook of Global South Youth Studies

Author : Sharlene Swartz
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190930020
Total Pages : 681 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (99 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Global South Youth Studies by : Sharlene Swartz

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Global South Youth Studies written by Sharlene Swartz and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 681 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ninety percent of the world's youth live in Africa, Latin America and the developing countries of Asia. Despite this, the field of Youth Studies, like many others, is dominated by the knowledge economy of the Global North. To address these geo-political inequalities of knowledge, The Oxford Handbook of Global South Youth Studies offers a contribution from Southern scholars to remake Youth Studies from its current state, that universalises Northern perspectives, into a truly Global Youth Studies. Contributors from across various regions of the Global South, including from the Diaspora, Indigenous and Aboriginal communities, locate and define the Global South, articulate the necessity of studying Southern lives to enrich, re-interpret, legitimate and offer symmetry to Youth Studies, and utilize and innovate Southern theory to do so. Eleven concepts are re-imagined and re-presented throughout the Handbook--personhood, intersectionality, violences, de- and post-coloniality, consciousness, precarity, fluid modernities, ontological insecurity, navigational capacities, collective agency and emancipation. The outcome is a series of everyday practices such as hustling, navigating, fixing, waiting, being on standby, silence, and life-writing, that demonstrate how youth living in adversity experiment with and push back against routine and conformity, and how research may support them in these endeavors and, simultaneously, redefine the relationships between knowledge, practice and politics-what the volume editors term epistepraxis. The Handbook concludes with a nascent charter for a Global Youth Studies of benefit to the world, that no longer excludes, assumes or elides but rather includes new possibilities for representing youth, researching amongst them, and devising policies and interventions to better serve them. This volume is a critical addition to the field of Youth Studies and one that should be of interest to scholars, researchers, and students working in this area in both the Global North and South.

The Oxford Handbook of the South African Economy

Author : Arkebe Oqubay
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192646583
Total Pages : 1120 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (926 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of the South African Economy by : Arkebe Oqubay

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the South African Economy written by Arkebe Oqubay and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-11-18 with total page 1120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While sharing some characteristics with other middle-income countries, South Africa is a country with a unique economic history and distinctive economic features. It is a regional economic powerhouse that plays a significant role, not only in southern Africa and in the continent, but also as a member of BRICS. However, there has been a lack of structural transformation and weak economic growth, and South Africa faces the profound triple challenges of poverty, inequality, and unemployment. Any meaningful debate about economic policies to address these challenges needs to be informed by a deep understanding of historical developments, robust empirical evidence, and rigorous analysis of South Africa's complex economic landscape. This volume seeks to provide a wide-ranging set of original, detailed, and state-of-the-art analytical perspectives that contribute to scientific knowledge as well as to well-informed and productive discourse on the South African economy. While concentrating on the more recent economic issues facing South Africa, the handbook also provides historical and political context. It offers an in-depth examination of strategic issues in the country's key economic sectors, and brings together diverse analytical perspectives.

The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion

Author : Peter Clarke
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780199279791
Total Pages : 1063 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (797 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion by : Peter Clarke

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion written by Peter Clarke and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 1063 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An expert team of international scholars provide fifty-one essays as entry points into the sociological study and understanding of religion and in-depth surveys into its changing forms and content in the contemporary world. Issues discussed range from ecology to law, art to cognitive science, crime to health care.

The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of the Middle East

Author : Armando Salvatore
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780190087494
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (874 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of the Middle East by : Armando Salvatore

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of the Middle East written by Armando Salvatore and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Book Abstract: The sociology of the Middle East has been an expanding field of inquiry since the aftermath of WWII when phenomena as diverse as urbanization, internal and international migration, and peasant societies attracted the attention of scholars working on the region. The Middle East became central in key sociological debates on modernization theory and the critical responses. The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of the Middle East connects this historical trajectory with the emergence of the sociology of Islam, inspired by Max Weber. It explores how within the global community, the Middle East has become a terrain of heightened concern within the post-Cold War context, where the promising rise of civic (and often religiously-inspired) sociopolitical movements in the 1980s and 1990s has been slowly overwhelmed by the affirmation of jihadist networks, authoritarian states, and complex supranational security apparatuses. This foundational volume starts by engaging in a critical examination of the field itself, starting with a historical sociology of the making of the idea itself of the Middle East and linking it with the legacy of colonialism and the evolving dynamics of global power. In repurposing the sociology of the Middle East within a growing interdisciplinary multifield, the Handbook develops the critical argument that the exploration of social dynamics in the Middle East cannot be disjoined from the analysis of culture and politics. By connecting the vexed state-society relations in the region with movements of transformation and the affirmation of rights and creativity in the public arenas, it provides a comprehensive perspective to investigate longstanding regional and new transregional and global dynamics and their impact on the life of people in the region. Keywords: sociology of the Middle East, sociology of Islam, Max Weber, historical sociology, Middle East and North Africa region, MENA"--

African Societies

Author : R. Sooryamoorthy
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3031573943
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis African Societies by : R. Sooryamoorthy

Download or read book African Societies written by R. Sooryamoorthy and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Oxford Handbook of Transformations of the State

Author : Stephan Leibfried
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0199691584
Total Pages : 928 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (996 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Transformations of the State by : Stephan Leibfried

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Transformations of the State written by Stephan Leibfried and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 928 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Handbook offers a comprehensive treatment of transformations of the state, from its origins in different parts of the world and different time periods to its transformations since World War II in the advanced industrial countries, the post-Communist world, and the Global South. 0Leading experts in their fields, from Europe and North America, discuss conceptualizations and theories of the state and the transformations of the state in its engagement with a changing international environment as well as with changing domestic economic, social, and political challenges. The Handbook covers different types of states in the Global South (from failed to predatory, rentier and developmental), in different kinds of advanced industrial political economies (corporatist, statist, liberal, import substitution industrialization), and in various post-Communist countries (Russia, China, successor states to the USSR, and Eastern Europe). It also addresses crucial challenges in different areas of state intervention, from security to financial regulation, migration, welfare states, democratization and quality of democracy, ethno-nationalism, and human development. The volume makes a compelling case that far from losing its relevance in the face of globalization, the state remains a key actor in all areas of social and economic life, changing its areas of intervention, its modes of operation, and its structures in adaption to new international and domestic challenges.

The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion

Author : Peter Clarke
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0191557528
Total Pages : 1063 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (915 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion by : Peter Clarke

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion written by Peter Clarke and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-02-04 with total page 1063 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion draws on the expertise of an international team of scholars providing both an entry point into the sociological study and understanding of religion and an in-depth survey into its changing forms and content in the contemporary world. The role and impact of religion and spirituality on the politics, culture, education and health in the modern world is rigorously discussed and debated. The study of the sociology of religion forges interdisciplinary links to explore aspects of continuity and change in the contemporary interface between society and religion. Using a combination of theoretical, methodological and content-led approaches, the fifty-seven contributors collectively emphasise the complex relationships between religion and aspects of life from scientific research to law, ecology to art, music to cognitive science, crime to institutional health care and more. The developing character of religion, irreligion and atheism and the impact of religious diversity on social cohesion are explored. An overview of current scholarship in the field is provided in each themed chapter with an emphasis on encouraging new thinking and reflection on familiar and emergent themes to stimulate further debate and scholarship. The resulting essay collection provides an invaluable resource for research and teaching in this diverse discipline.

Sociology Global

Author : R. Sooryamoorthy
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781839986819
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (868 download)

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Book Synopsis Sociology Global by : R. Sooryamoorthy

Download or read book Sociology Global written by R. Sooryamoorthy and published by . This book was released on 2023-04-04 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society

Author : Ofelia Garcia
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019021290X
Total Pages : 656 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society by : Ofelia Garcia

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society written by Ofelia Garcia and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 656 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Oxford Handbook challenges basic concepts that have informed the study of sociolinguistics since its inception in the 1960s. In 27 chapters, the book challenges the modernist positivist perspective of the field that has treated languages and speech communities as bounded and the idealized native speaker as the ultimate authority. Instead, it offers a critical poststructuralist perspective that examines the socio-historical context that led to the emergence of dominant sociolinguistic concepts and develops new theoretical and methodological tools that challenge these dominant concepts. The contributors to this volume take this critical poststructuralist perspective as a starting point for engaging in explorations of a range of sociolinguistic topics including language variation, language ideologies, bi/multilingualism, language policy, linguistic landscapes and multimodality. Each of the contributors provides a critical overview of the limits of modernist positivist perspectives on their topic and offer ways of theorizing and researching their topic in ways that are aligned with a critical poststructuralist perspective. The book also provides a global perspective on these issues with contributors focused on North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Africa. Together, the interdisciplinary and global contributions reveal the limits of conventional approaches to sociolinguistics and offer a glimpse into directions for the future of the field.

The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of the Middle East

Author : Armando Salvatore
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190087471
Total Pages : 940 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of the Middle East by : Armando Salvatore

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of the Middle East written by Armando Salvatore and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022 with total page 940 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Book Abstract: The sociology of the Middle East has been an expanding field of inquiry since the aftermath of WWII when phenomena as diverse as urbanization, internal and international migration, and peasant societies attracted the attention of scholars working on the region. The Middle East became central in key sociological debates on modernization theory and the critical responses. The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of the Middle East connects this historical trajectory with the emergence of the sociology of Islam, inspired by Max Weber. It explores how within the global community, the Middle East has become a terrain of heightened concern within the post-Cold War context, where the promising rise of civic (and often religiously-inspired) sociopolitical movements in the 1980s and 1990s has been slowly overwhelmed by the affirmation of jihadist networks, authoritarian states, and complex supranational security apparatuses. This foundational volume starts by engaging in a critical examination of the field itself, starting with a historical sociology of the making of the idea itself of the Middle East and linking it with the legacy of colonialism and the evolving dynamics of global power. In repurposing the sociology of the Middle East within a growing interdisciplinary multifield, the Handbook develops the critical argument that the exploration of social dynamics in the Middle East cannot be disjoined from the analysis of culture and politics. By connecting the vexed state-society relations in the region with movements of transformation and the affirmation of rights and creativity in the public arenas, it provides a comprehensive perspective to investigate longstanding regional and new transregional and global dynamics and their impact on the life of people in the region. Keywords: sociology of the Middle East, sociology of Islam, Max Weber, historical sociology, Middle East and North Africa region, MENA"--

The Oxford Handbook of Governance and Public Management for Social Policy

Author : Karen J. Baehler
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019091632X
Total Pages : 1065 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (99 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Governance and Public Management for Social Policy by : Karen J. Baehler

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Governance and Public Management for Social Policy written by Karen J. Baehler and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-02-16 with total page 1065 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public administration plays an integral role at every stage of social policy creation and execution. Program operators' management decisions shape policymakers' perceptions of what can and should be accomplished through social programs, while public administrators wield considerable power to mobilize tangible and intangible resources and fill gaps in policy designs. Furthermore, the cumulative effects of public administrators' daily activities directly influence outcomes for program participants, and may shift policy itself. Location also matters to social policy, as those same administrators are expected to innovate continuously in response to shifting local and national conditions, including changes in budgetary allocations, client needs and capacities, and public attitudes. This Handbook will aim to capture what is being learned across six geographical regions: Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, Latin America, and the U.S. and Canada. Specifically, each regional section will contain 6-10 chapters canvassing a particular set of promising practices or emerging challenges at the regional or sub-regional level, in addition to a brief overview written by the section editor. The regional sections will be flanked by integrative chapters. As a whole, the volume contains 65 chapters.

The Oxford Handbook of the Economy of Cameroon

Author : Célestin Monga
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192848526
Total Pages : 801 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (928 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of the Economy of Cameroon by : Célestin Monga

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Economy of Cameroon written by Célestin Monga and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-25 with total page 801 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cameroon's suboptimal economic experience since independence (1960) sheds light on broader issues of Africa's development narrative, and provides valuable economic and policy knowledge. While Cameroon's large informal economy is diverse and resilient and rooted in old business traditions, its formal economy has exhibited low productivity and employment growth for over 60 years. This has brought anger, disappointment, and violent conflict in several regions of the country. The Oxford Handbook of the Economy of Cameroon examines the reasons of Cameroon's unsatisfactory economic performance and draws lessons from successful development experience to help tackle these issues. The Handbook provides a critical assessment of the history, patterns, and strategies of economic development in Cameroon, and outlines new approaches to economic enquiry for prosperity and social change. Through Cameroon's governance story, the handbook analyzes the evolving conceptions of economic policy, takes stock of intellectual progress, documents the challenges of implementation, and outlines the intellectual and policy agenda ahead. For a developing country increases in per capita income arise from advances in technology arise from closing the knowledge and technology gap with those at the frontier. And within any country (especially one like Cameroon), there is enormous scope for productivity improvement simply by closing the gap between best practices and average practices. Standards of living can therefore be improved through the implementation of pertinent learning strategies. In this Oxford Handbook of the Economy of Cameroon, an international team of leading development economists and researchers address the wide range of issues facing Cameroon and provide guiding principles on how best the country (and other developing nations) could move human, capital, and financial resources from low- to high-productivity sectors in a constantly changing global economy.

The Oxford Handbook of the Modern Slum

Author : Alan Mayne
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190879459
Total Pages : 601 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (98 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of the Modern Slum by : Alan Mayne

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Modern Slum written by Alan Mayne and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-08-25 with total page 601 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ""Slum" is among the most evocative and judgmental words of the modern world. It originated in the slang language of the world's then-largest city, London, early in the nineteenth century. Its use thereafter proliferated, and its original meanings unraveled as colonialism and urbanization transformed the world, and as prejudice against those disadvantaged by these transformations became entrenched. Cuckoo-like, "slum" overtook and transformed other local idioms: for example, bustee, favela, kampong, shack. "Slum" once justified heavy-handed redevelopment schemes that tore apart poor but viable neighborhoods. Now it underpins schemes of neighbourhood renewal that, seemingly benign in their intentions, nonetheless pay scant respect to the viewpoints of their inhabitants. This Oxford Handbook probes both present-day understandings of slums and their historical antecedents. It discusses the evolution of slum "improvement" policies globally from the early nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century. It encompasses multiple perspectives: anthropology, archaeology, architecture, geography, history, politics, sociology, urban studies and urban planning. It emphasizes the influences of gender and race inequality, and the persistence of subaltern agency notwithstanding entrenched prejudice and unsympathetically-applied institutionalized power. Uniquely, it balances contributions from scholars who deny the legitimacy of "slum" in social and policy analysis, with those who accept its relevance as a measuring stick of social disadvantage and as a vehicle for social reform. This Handbook does not simply footnote the past; it critiques conventional understandings of urban social disadvantage and reform across time and place in the modern world. It suggests pathways for future research and for alleviative reform"--

Social Problems in Africa

Author : Apollo Rwomire
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0313003920
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis Social Problems in Africa by : Apollo Rwomire

Download or read book Social Problems in Africa written by Apollo Rwomire and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2001-07-30 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the recent growth of research on social problems facing the people of sub-Saharan Africa, there remains a critical lack of conceptual, epistemological, and empirical research and documentation. This sophisticated new book attempts to fill that gap by synthesizing, interpreting, and extending the existing literature on conditions that constitute serious impediments to socio-economic development in Africa. It provides an original and up-to-date survey of key problems ranging from poverty and inequality to violence and crime. The contributors, all of whom have lived or worked in Africa, show how social problems emerge, how they are defined, and how various actors attempt to deal with them. This timely book provides a much needed analysis of the major issues and debates regarding the dynamics of social problems in the African context. Social Problems in Africa is broken into four parts. The first introduces readers to the nature of social problems in general and provides a framework for analyzing and understanding social problems in an African context. Part II, on culture, human rights and democracy, examines these crucial aspects of social problems in Africa, as well as issues such as language and colonialism. Part III focuses on poverty and inequality, while conflict and violence is the focus of Part IV. Together, the chapters in this volume provide the most comprehensive and systematic approach to the issues available, bringing much-needed attention to the problems in Africa from the perspective of scholars who have lived and worked there.