Panel proposed for the 53rd Annual Meeting of the African Studies Organization, San Francisco, 18- 21 November 2010

Chair: Thomas Bierschenk (Mainz), Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan (Niamey).

Numerous studies have investigated the regime and power dimensions of African states, or have generated new thinking on questions of sovereignty, and the symbolic, exclusionary or repressive aspects of statehood. However, little empirically-grounded attention has been given in scholarship on Africa to the delivery of public goods and services, especially from the perspective of public servants themselves, and to their micro-practices of state-making. This panel builds on work from this perspective that has been conducted in recent years especially in West Africa by European and African researchers. The panel is open to micro-sociological and ethnographic studies from across the continent that analyse the “real” workings of African states and public services, and that pay close attention to how public servants “do the state” on a daily basis, at both central and local levels. Comparative and historical studies are also welcome, as well as studies that bring perspectives from the sociology of organisations to bear on African bureaucracies.

To submit a paper to this panel, please send an abstract to the chairs (biersche@uni-mainz.de, jeanpierre.olivierdesardan@ird.fr), and register at the ASA website at http://www.africanstudies.org/p/cm/ld/fid=48