Violence, Political Culture & Development in Africa — 2006 ·

Edited by Preben Kaarsholm

“Striking, among a range of hypotheses about the origins and continuations of civil strife, is the attenuation of the meaning of genocide, particularly in two stimulating chapters....”

CHOICE

“Many of these contributions demonstrate the immense value of careful fieldwork and meticulous micropolitical understanding in the study of violence—methods and approaches all too often neglected in favor of theories that may appear parsimonious and appealing, but which often lack empirical foundations.”

African Studies Review

Africa has witnessed a number of transitions to democracy in recent years. Coinciding with this upsurge in democratic transitions have been spectacular experiences of social disintegration.

An alternative to discourses of the “failed” and “collapsed” state in Africa is an approach that takes seriously the complex historical processes underlying the political development of individual nation states. The chapters in this volume throw light on the ways in which violence, political culture, and development have interacted in recent African history.

Preben Kaarsholm is a professor of international development studies at Roskilde University, Denmark.