The Illusion of Cultural Identity

The concept of cultural identity has become for many a convenient explanation for most of the world's political problems. In The Illusion of Cultural Identity Jean-François Bayart offers a sustained critique of this rationalization by dispelling the notion that fixed cultural identities do, in fact, exist. In this highly sophisticated book, Bayart shows that the very idea of cultural identity prevents us from grasping the cultural dimensions of political action and economic development. Identities, he argues, are fluid, never homogeneous, and sometimes invented. Political repertoires are instead created through imagined, highly ambiguous aspects of culture—what he calls "imaginaires." For instance, the long beards worn by men in some fundamentalist groups are thought to be key to their core identities and thus assumed to be in conflict with modern values. These beards, however, do not stand in the way of the men's use of technology or their embrace of capitalism—an example Bayart uses to demonstrate the equivocality of cultural identity. The theoretical implications of Bayart's analysis emerge from a fascinating collection of historical examples that often surprise and always instruct.

History

Bayart, Jean-François

Africa

University of Chicago Press

The concept of cultural identity has become for many a convenient explanation for most of the world's political problems. In The Illusion of Cultural Identity Jean-François Bayart offers a sustained critique of this rationalization by dispelling the notion that fixed cultural identities do, in fact, exist. In this highly sophisticated book, Bayart shows that the very idea of cultural identity prevents us from grasping the cultural dimensions of political action and economic development. Identities, he argues, are fluid, never homogeneous, and sometimes invented. Political repertoires are instead created through imagined, highly ambiguous aspects of culture—what he calls "imaginaires." For instance, the long beards worn by men in some fundamentalist groups are thought to be key to their core identities and thus assumed to be in conflict with modern values. These beards, however, do not stand in the way of the men's use of technology or their embrace of capitalism—an example Bayart uses to demonstrate the equivocality of cultural identity. The theoretical implications of Bayart's analysis emerge from a fascinating collection of historical examples that often surprise and always instruct.

The growth of fraud and smuggling on a major scale, the plundering of natural resources, the privatisation of state institutions, the development of an economy of plunder, the growth of private armies―all of these features of public life in Africa suggest that the state itself is becoming a vehicle for organised criminal activity. The three authors propose criteria for gauging the criminalisation of African states and present a novel prognosis. Have we moved on from "classical" corruption? There is a difference between the corruption of previous decades and the criminalisation of some African states now taking place. Major operators are now able to connect with global criminal networks. 
What are the political origins of official implication in crime? The notion of "social capital" has become fashionable among commentators in recent years. 
What aspects of Africa's past have contributed to current attitudes towards the use of public office for personal enrichment, or even systemic illegality? The new frontiers of crime in South Africa. South Africa has a decades-long tradition of association between crime and politics. South Africa is now the centre of important international patterns of crime, notably in the drug trade. It has both Africas largest formal economy and the continent's largest criminal economy. 
What are the economic origins of official implication in crime? New forms of corruption have been unintentionally helped by liberal economic reforms.
African Issues, edited by Alex de Waal February, 1999 192 pages 8 x 5 Index

Criminalization of the State in Africa (African Issues)

Ellis, Stephen

Hibou, Béatrice

Indiana University Press

The growth of fraud and smuggling, the plunder of natural resources, the increasing use of private armie--all of these features of public life in Africa suggest that the state itself is becoming a vehicle of organized criminal activity. The three authors propose criteria for gauging the criminalisation of African states and present a novel prognosis.

The Criminalisation of the State in Africa (African Issues)

Legal Theory & Systems

Indiana Univ. Pr

The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly

"The State in Africa" is the English translation of one of the most important texts in comparative politics of the 1980s. Drawing upon a wide range of literature, the author shatters the myths surrounding African politics based on the images of famine, corruption and civil war. He challenges the existing western perception of Africa based on these theories and argues that we can only begin to understand the dynamics of contemporary African politics by comprehending the long term history of political thought and social action in Africa. The book covers both Anglophone and Francophone Africa. It includes quotation of authentic African voices from the people on the street to African presidents. The English edition includes a preface by Professor John Dunn, University of Cambridge, and a specially written introduction by Bayart. The author, Jean-Francois Bayart, is one of France's leading political scientists. He is the founder and editor of the journal "Politique Africaine" as well as being the author of many books on African politics. The book is aimed at 3rd year undergraduate and postgraduate students, and academics. It is suitable for those following courses in African politics, Third World politics, development studies, comparative politics and historical sociology.

Addison-Wesley Longman Ltd

"The State in Africa" is the English translation of one of the most important texts in comparative politics of the 1980s. Drawing upon a wide range of literature, the author shatters the myths surrounding African politics based on the images of famine, corruption and civil war. He challenges the existing western perception of Africa based on these theories and argues that we can only begin to understand the dynamics of contemporary African politics by comprehending the long term history of political thought and social action in Africa. The book covers both Anglophone and Francophone Africa. It includes quotation of authentic African voices from the people on the street to African presidents. The English edition includes a preface by Professor John Dunn, University of Cambridge, and a specially written introduction by Bayart. The author, Jean-Francois Bayart, is one of France's leading political scientists. He is the founder and editor of the journal "Politique Africaine" as well as being the author of many books on African politics. The book is aimed at 3rd year undergraduate and postgraduate students, and academics. It is suitable for those following courses in African politics, Third World politics, development studies, comparative politics and historical sociology.

Global Subjects: A Political Critique of Globalization

Taking the plane or sending an e-mail: globalization has become part of the fabric of our daily lives. And yet it is often seen as an impersonal force that is threatening to destroy identities and undermine nation-states. In this major new book, Jean-Franois Bayart offers a radically new account of globalization which challenges the way it is interpreted both by neo-liberals and by the anti-globalization movement.   Bayart argues that globalization is something that we ourselves have created, and the nation-state is actually a product, and not of a victim, of this process. Far from being synonymous with alienation and social disintegration, globalization establishes transnational solidarities and networks which overlap with nation-states without necessarily undermining them. Globalization has also refashioned sexual identities, transforming, through the representation of female and male bodies in the media, in advertising and in the Internet, the way individuals in different parts of the world have learnt to recognize themselves as sexual subjects. It has created new cultures of consumption which stimulate new desires, new techniques and technologies of the body and new forms of tension and conflict.    Drawing on Foucaults notions of governmentality and subjectivation, Bayart develops a rich and illuminating account of how the social relations constitutive of globalization produce new forms of subjectivity, new lifestyles and new moral subjects, from the colonisers and colonised subjects of nineteenth-century India and Africa to the spread of new kinds of transnational and ethnicized subjectivities and lifestyles today.   Spanning two centuries and drawing on his deep knowledge of Africa and the Middle East, Bayart shows that, if globalization is our handiwork, its development and thus our history will be decided on the contested terrains where new ways of life, new modes of consumption and new types of struggle are being invented.

Politics & Social Sciences

Sociology

Polity

The State in Africa is one of the important and compelling texts of comparative politics and historical sociology of the last twenty years. Bayart rejects the assumption of African ‘otherness’ based on stereotyped images of famine, corruption and civil war. Instead he invites the reader to see that African politics is like politics anywhere else in the world, not an exotic aberration. Africans themselves speak of a ‘politics of the belly’ – an expression that refers not only to the necessities of survival but also to a complex array of cultural representations, notably those of the ‘invisible’ world of sorcery. The ‘politics of the belly’ attests to a distinctively African trajectory of power that we need to understand as part of a long-term historical development. While acknowledging the insights of Western social scientists from Weber to Foucault, Bayart never loses sight of the realities of African politics and social life and he is careful to allow African voices – from the ‘small boy’ in the street to the ‘big men’ in the presidential palaces – to speak for themselves. This new edition of Bayart’s classic book includes a new introduction on Africa in the world today. This book has established itself as an indispensable text on the state and politics in Africa. It also provides a nuanced reading of what we have come to call ‘development’ and opens the way for a more general reflection on the invention of politics in African and Asian societies.

Business & Money

Economics

The concept of cultural identity has become for many a convenient explanation for most of the world's political problems. In The Illusion of Cultural Identity Jean-François Bayart offers a sustained critique of this rationalization by dispelling the notion that fixed cultural identities do, in fact, exist.In this highly sophisticated book, Bayart shows that the very idea of cultural identity prevents us from grasping the cultural dimensions of political action and economic development. Identities, he argues, are fluid, never homogeneous, and sometimes invented. Political repertoires are instead created through imagined, highly ambiguous aspects of culture—what he calls "imaginaires." For instance, the long beards worn by men in some fundamentalist groups are thought to be key to their core identities and thus assumed to be in conflict with modern values. These beards, however, do not stand in the way of the men's use of technology or their embrace of capitalism—an example Bayart uses to demonstrate the equivocality of cultural identity. The theoretical implications of Bayart's analysis emerge from a fascinating collection of historical examples that often surprise and always instruct.

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

C. Hurst & Co. Publishers Ltd.

L'Etat en Afrique: La politique du ventre (L'Espace du politique) (French Edition)

Reference

Foreign Language Study & Reference

FAYARD

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Books by Bayart, Jean-François

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bayart, Jean-François. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Illusion of Cultural Identity

The Illusion of Cultural Identity

Criminalization of the State in Africa (African Issues)

The Criminalisation of the State in Africa (African Issues)

The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly

The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly

Global Subjects: A Political Critique of Globalization

The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly

The Illusion of Cultural Identity

L'Etat en Afrique: La politique du ventre (L'Espace du politique) (French Edition)