What 'Development' Does to Work

AbstractThis article introduces an Africa-focused special issue showing that the rise of development in its modern form coincided with the demise of the political legitimacy of forced labor. It argues that by mobilizing the idea of development, both colonial and independent African governments were able to continue recruiting unpaid (or underpaid) labor—relabeled as “voluntary participation,” “self-help,” or “human investment” —after the passing of the ILO’s Forced Labor Convention. This introduction consists of two parts: the first section summarizes the main findings of the contributions to the special issue. The second part advances preliminary considerations on the implications of these findings for our assessment of international development “aid.” The conclusion advocates that research on planned development focus not on developers-beneficiaries, but rather on employers-employees. Doing so opens up a renewed research agenda on the consequences of “aid” both for development workers (those formally employed by one of the many development institutions) and for so-called beneficiaries (those whose participation in development is represented as conducive to their own good).</jats:p

Global Abolitionist Movements

Abolitionism succeeded thanks to the struggles of many groups, some genuinely global, others national or local but interconnected at a global level. This article takes a pluralist approach to global abolitionism. Since the end of the seventeenth century, the membership, objectives, and strategies of different abolitionist movements have been varied, but they shared the same objective: to impose their understanding of slavery as an aberration that ought to be delegalized and eventually prohibited worldwide. The article periodizes global abolitionism in three main stages characterized, successively, by the primacy of egalitarianism, imperialism, and internationalism. By the mid-twentieth century pro-slavery ideologies were obsolete in Euro-America and had disappeared from official policy globally. They survived in circumscribed contexts where anti-slavery activists are struggling against the lingering vitality of pro-slavery ideas in the twenty-first century

Slavery and Marriage in African Societies

This article introduces a special issue focusing upon linkages between enslavement and marriage within African societies from the 1830s to the present day. The right to make decisions over marriage is one of the core powers which masters have historically exercised over individuals whom they enslaved. The exercise of this right had far-reaching ramifications for lived experiences of enslavement, with slaves – usually women and girls – being forced into conjugal relationships where their labour, sexuality and reproductive capacity were at the disposal of their husband/master. This article introduces two major themes that cut across the issue's contributions: direct connections and comparative analogies. The former refers to scenarios where marriage and enslavement directly intersected and overlapped, while the latter refers to claims that at least some African marriages were analogous to enslavement. Comparisons between marriage and slavery have been a recurring feature of African politics throughout the period considered here. They have also been frequently paired with moral denunciations and calls for change by actors as different as European colonial administrators and African victims-turned-activists. At the same time, the legitimizing cloak of marriage has been repeatedly used to deliberately obscure the continuing legacies of slavery

Captive Wives or Conjugal Slaves? The Slavery-Marriage Nexus in Northern Uganda since the Mid-Nineteenth Century

This article examines transformations in the marriage-slavery nexus in Northern Uganda from the late nineteenth century to the present. By historicising the forced marriage of abducted girls in the Lord’s Resistance Army, the article contributes to explaining why the interpretation of these circumstances has been so disputed in Uganda and internationally. It starts by examining different interpretations of the relationship between Dominic Ongwen and his forced wives. The Ongwen case is then contextualised in the history of female captivity and conjugal violence in Lango and Acholi societies. It is argued that enslavement in the form of wartime captivity was not irreconcilable with marriage in Northern Uganda in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and that this history influences contemporary Lango and Acholi perceptions of these phenomen

Dependence, Unfreedom, and Slavery in Africa: Toward an Integrated Analysis

The three books reviewed in this article seek to provide interpretations of dependence, unfreedom and slavery in African societies. But they reach different conclusions; bring different methodological frameworks to bear on the circumstances they examine; and – when they are concerned with policy questions – propose different remedies. A comparison of these books is useful not only for understanding African dependence and unfreedom, but also for rethinking critically the approaches of some of the main contemporary strands of research on these phenomena.</jats:p

Sorveglianza attiva di Enterobacteriaceae multiresistenti presso l'Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Senese

La diffusione di ceppi di Enterobacteriaceae produttori di ESBLs e soprattutto di carbapenemasi in ambiente ospedaliero rappresenta un’emergenza di interesse pubblico, poiché rende più difficile l'intervento terapeutico delle infezioni sostenute da tali patogeni multiresistenti. Per questo motivo sono stati sviluppati programmi per la prevenzione di tali infezioni, basati sull’identificazione precoce di pazienti portatori di ceppi multiresistenti. In questo studio sono stati analizzati i tamponi rettali effettuati nell’ambito del programma di sorveglianza di tali patogeni, previsto dall’AOUS, per monitorare la presenza di Enterobatteri produttori di ESBLs e carbapenemasi presso il Policlinico Santa Maria alle Scotte di Siena

The Keita Project: An anthropological study of international development discourses and practices in Niger.

This thesis is an ethnography of an Integrated Rural Development Project which began its activities in 1984 and is aimed at 'fighting against desertification' in the Ader Doutchi Majiya Region of Niger. The Project is financed by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, until 2000, was implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. The thesis aims at contributing to our understanding of 'development': how it works; what configurations of power and forms of agency it produces; and how it is perceived by different categories of actors involved in it, including planners, project staff, and the men and women living in the 'intervention area'. The thesis contains nine chapters. Chapter one introduces the thesis' aim, theoretical import and methodological approaches. Chapters two and three provide an introduction to the historical and socio-economic context of the Ader Doutchi Majiya. Chapter four unravels the discourses of development which made the Project and its strategies possible in the early 1980s. Chapter five looks at the concepts and practices of development of project staff, and Chapter six focuses on local people's perceptions and patterns of agency in relation to the Keita Project. Chapters seven and eight compare the discourses and practices of planners, project staff, and local people, with reference to two axes of project 'intervention': gender (Chapter seven) and participation (Chapter eight). Chapter nine concludes the thesis. The thesis contributes to theory in the anthropology of development, bringing together actor-oriented and structural explanations into one analytical framework and arguing that there are limits to the productive pursuit of either on its own. It contributes to anthropological studies of change in West African societies; and it adds new insights to the 'ethnography of aid', making available some 'lessons learned' from the Keita Project to a potentially interdisciplinary audience