Constraint and Creativity on African State Boundaries

Borderlands are among the most dynamic social spheres in Africa. Here, where a social technology of control imported from outside the continent shapes social life, we find the most creative appropriations of state institutions and see new social forms emerge from it. With this strong link between state interventions and new social dynamics, state boundaries are ideal places to inquire into the dynamics of adaptation and creativity. This project uses case studies in three very different borderlands to describe how the possibility and need to adapt to institutionalisations implemented from above contributes to the emergence of novel forms of social actions, and how the border as an institution is changed in the process. Comparing the borderlands between Namibia and Angola, South Africa and Zimbabwe, and Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Burkina Faso, we strive to isolate factors that engender social creativity, and to understand whether they simultaneously limit the state’s capacity to project its vision on the borderland. We analyse the relation between the degree of institutionalisation from above and the likelihood of creativity to emerge from the interaction of a local population with the institution, and try to assess longer-term structural consequences of the process. The three case studies are linked by a systematic selection of cases to represent different border histories and different political settings, by a shared methodology and by shared work packages making data mutually comparable. The project addresses questions of social creativity and constraint in an empirical field that has increasing relevance for national and international political actors. Creative dynamics between institutions and social actors in borderlands generate and define licit and illicit trade, corruption, migration or cross-border conflict. By analysing concrete border situations, the project is expected to generate important new insights for borderland studies as well as for policy actors.

Ansprechpartner: Dobler Gregor

Projektbeginn: 01.06.2013
Projektende: 31.07.2018

Dobler Gregor

Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Institut für Ethnologie

Werthmannstr. 10
79098 Freiburg i. Br.

Telefon: +49-(0)761/203-3593
Fax: +49-(0)761/203-3581
Email: sekretariat@ethno.uni-freiburg.de
http://www.ethno.uni-freiburg.de/

• Heitz-Tokpa K
• Klimm O

Das Projekt wird im Rahmen des DFG-Schwerpunktprogramms 1448 „Adaptation and Creativity – Technologies of Signification in the Production of Order and Disorder“ gefördert. http://www.spp1448.de/home/