Modernization as Spectacle in Africa, edited by Peter J. Bloom, Stephan F. Miescher, and Takyiwaa Manuh
Release Date: May 1, 2014
Publisher: Indiana University Press
For postcolonial Africa, modernization was seen as a necessary outcome of the struggle for independence and as crucial to the success of its newly established states. Since then, the rhetoric of modernization has pervaded policy, culture, and development, lending a kind of political theatricality to nationalist framings of modernization and Africans’ perceptions of their place in the global economy. These 15 essays address governance, production, and social life; the role of media; and the discourse surrounding large-scale development projects, revealing modernization's deep effects on the expressive culture of Africa.
Peter J. Bloom is author of
French Colonial Documentary: Mythologies of Humanitarianism
(2008). Stephan F. Miescher is author of
Making Men in Ghana (2005). Takyiwaa Manuh is author of
At Home in the World? International Migration and Development in Contemporary Ghana and West Africa (2005).
