Social movement struggles in Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID5850548
AuthorsMiles Larmer (0000-0002-2888-2581, University of Sheffield, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume37
Issue125
Pages251-262
Publication date2010-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReview of African Political Economy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0305-6244 • E-ISSN: 1740-1720
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03056244.2010.510623
OpenAlexW1991085090
LanguageEN
Citations received25
References cited31

This special issue of the Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE) arose from a conference held in Paris in January 2010, organised by three of the issue's co-editors: Richard Bane ́gas, Marie-Emmanuelle Pommerolle and Johanna Sime ́ant.The conference on 'Struggles in Africa' (Lutter dans les Afriques) examined the nature of popular struggles in Africa's present and recent history, both through individual case studies and more comparative analysis of popular and social movements and their relationship to the wider context of political, economic and social change on the continent.As well as offering new insights into issues which are clearly of concern to the ROAPE readership, much of the research focused on countries, primarily in francophone Africa, that receive limited coverage in the journal.For these reasons, this special issue brings much of this rich body of empirical research and analysis of African struggles and movements to the attention of an English-speaking audience for this first time, demonstrating the diversity and significant impact of such struggles within a continent whose peoples are stereotypically depicted as relatively passive, compliant and even complicit in their own suffering and exploitation.The movements under study have developed original analyses of the changing context in which they operate, utilised new (as well as old) methods of activism and organisation, and articulated original perspectives on the problems faced by them, their constituents, their countries and their continent.As well as the intrinsic value of these studies, the authors and editors of this special issue also present an original perspective on African political economy, distinct in some respects from ROAPE's established approach.The emphasis is on 'bottom-up' analyses, reflecting and representing the voices of Africans engaged in day-to-day struggles that arise from structural manifestations of political and economic inequality and exploitation that are usually analysed in the journal in a larger-scale, theoretical or conceptually oriented way.In doing so, the editors seek to explore instructive encounters and potential disjuncture between the ways in which radical intellectual analysts on the one hand, and social movement activists on the other, understand and seek to address the particular (and evidently problematic) integration of Africa and its peoples into the global political system and its capitalist economy.This introduction, together with the article by Marie-Emmanuelle Pommerolle which immediately follows it, draws out some of these wider themes in ways which, it is hoped, will contextualise the articles that focus more on case studies. Social movement approaches to African societyThe social movements research presented at the Paris conference and within this issue utilises a range of intellectual approaches -political economy, but also Thompsonian 'history from below', more voluntarist interpretations of Marxism, subaltern studies, post-colonialism and others -to analyse the role played by popular movements of

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