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| Semester | spring semester 2019 |
| Course frequency | Irregular |
| Lecturers | Joschka Philipps (joschka.philipps@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | West Africa usually attracts attention in the context of transcontinental migration, terrorist threats, civil wars, failed states, overpopulation, or concerning the recent Ebola epidemic. Against this backdrop, the present seminar aspires to a more nuanced reading of the important relationships between global politics, social dynamics, and regime changes in the region. Focusing on Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Liberia, Burkina Faso, and Nigeria, the seminar pursues three goals. Methodologically, it seeks to emphasize that different methodological lenses lead to surprisingly different interpretations of political realities in West Africa. Juxtaposing political science, area studies, and postcolonial studies, it confronts students with crucial methodological choices that scientific findings depend on, and discusses the criteria for making such choices. Thematically, the seminar seeks to highlight the political significance of social factors and dynamics. This means analyzing the role of a growing youth population in West Africa, changing public cultures, urbanization and architecture, among others, in terms of how they affect the possibility or actuality of democratization, regime change, protest movements, and political conflict. Theoretically, finally, the seminar invites students of political science and neighboring disciplines to rethink politics from a new regional vantage point. In the context of globalization, West African politics throws global interdependencies into relief, not as a new phenomenon, but as a constituent aspect of political change in general. |
| Learning objectives | • Students are capable of using interdisciplinary approaches. They are aware of the respective advantages and disadvantages of different analytical frameworks for the study of African politics. • Students are familiar with the empirical cases discussed during the seminar. They can situate contemporary socio-political developments in West Africa in a regional and in a global context. • Students develop a critical perspective on how academic knowledge is produced about African politics, and are able to challenge simplistic accounts on methodological grounds. |
| Bibliography | Abdullah, Ibrahim and Ismail O. D. Rashid. 2017. Understanding West Africa’s Ebola Epidemic : Towards a Political Economy. London: Zed. Carothers, Thomas. 2002. “The End of the Transition Paradigm.” Journal of Democracy 13(1):5–21. Cheeseman, Nic. 2015. Democracy in Africa : Successes, Failures, and the Struggle for Political Reform. New York: Cambridge University Press. Cross, Hannah. 2013. Migrants, Borders and Global Capitalism: West African Labour Mobility and EU Borders. London: Routledge. Cooper, Frederick. 2001. “What Is the Concept of Globalization Good for? An African Historian’s Perspective.” African Affairs 200:189–213. Diouf, Mamadou. 1996. “Urban Youth and Senegalese Politics: Dakar 1988- I994.” Public Culture 8:225–49. Engels, Bettina. 2018. “Burkina Faso: A History of Power, Protest and Revolution.” Review of African Political Economy 45(156):363–64. Hoffman, Danny. 2017. Monrovia Modern: Urban Form and Political Imagination in Liberia. Duke University Press. Rodney, Walter. 1970. West Africa and the Atlantic Slave-Trade. Nairobi: East African Publishing House. Schmidt, Elizabeth. 2013. Foreign Intervention in Africa : From the Cold War to the War on Terror. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
| Course application | Anmeldung durch MOnA |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Course auditors welcome |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|
No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Modul: Ethnographien (Bachelor's degree subject: Anthropology) Modul: Europäisierung und Globalisierung (Master's Studies: European Global Studies) Modul: Fields: Governance and Politics (Master's degree program: African Studies) Modul: Regionaler Fokus M.A. (Master's degree subject: Political Science) Modul: Theory and General Anthropology (Master's degree subject: Anthropology) Modul: Vertiefung Politikwissenschaft M.A. (Master's degree subject: Political Science) Vertiefungsmodul Global Europe: Staatlichkeit, Entwicklung und Globalisierung (Master's Studies: European Global Studies) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | • 1 Reading Response • 1 Presentation (during the seminar) OR 1 Multiple Choice Test (at the end of the seminar) |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Politikwissenschaft |