Patterns of State-Society Incorporation and Disengagement in Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID23714867
AuthorsNaomi Chazan (corresponding author)
Year2019
Pages121-148
Publication date2019-06-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenuePrecarious Balance (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9780429314063-5
OpenAlexW2956393586
ISBN9780429314063
LanguageEN
Citations received9

This chapter looks at how social groups and formal institutional networks interconnect, and attempts to outline the main functional, human, situational and symbolic facets of the exchanges. It shows that the nature of African states is an outcome of the rhythm of relations between social entities and public institutions and officials. The human axis of state-society relations is molded by a notion of the state as a social entity which embodies a clearly delineated structure of human interactions. The contemporary African political experience defies the neat classificatory schemes devised to capture its multivariate texture. Economic detachment between state and society is clearly exhibited in processes of economic self-encapsulation. These activities manifest either a lack of incorporation in the state or withdrawal from contact with it in the economic sphere. Economic, political and cultural interconnections between states and social groups in contemporary Africa manifest varying rhythms and alternating foci of articulation and autonomy.

Disengagement theory · Geography · Political science · State (computer science) · Computer Science · Global Political and Social Dynamics · International Development and Aid · Medicine · Political Conflict and Governance · Gerontology

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