Class, Class Conflict, and the State in Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID4295261
AuthorsJoel Samoff (corresponding author)
Year1982
Volume97
Issue1
Pages105-127
Publication date1982-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Science Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3195 • E-ISSN: 1538-165X
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2149317
OpenAlexW2330512441
LanguageEN
Citations received6

The analysis of class and class conflict in contemporary Africa is transcending its history.' Although class analysis now appears quite regularly among publications on Africa, for a time it was largely excluded from studies because of the inclination of scholars to concern themselves with imperial history, ethnography, and stability; the apparent unimportance of class as a major cleavage in African society; and in general the anti-Marxist orientation of contemporary Western social science.2 Yet, however successful class analysis has been in transcending its shaky history and achieving a certain legitimacy, even respectability, in academic circles, it has yet to overcome fully the fetters of the epistemology and methodologies that dominate Western social science. Though rooted in Marx, class analyses of Africa continue to rely heavily on Weber and Parsons. This article is primarily concerned with analysis and methodology, the latter taken not in the narrow sense of the manipulation of quantified data, but rather in the broader sense of the concrete and practical tasks involved in developing a coherent understanding of society. That, of course, requires attention to the

Class (philosophy) · Class analysis · Class conflict · Class formation · Epistemology · Legitimacy · Marxist philosophy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social class · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science) · Elite Sociology and Global Capitalism · Law · Philosophy · Social and Economic Development in India · World Systems and Global Transformations

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