Africa Through Structuration Theory

Elonga Mboyo

Description

Despite all the talk about African Renaissance, much of the continent is plagued by poverty and instability. To break out of that cycle, the guardians of African heritage (the old independence freedom fighters turned political leaders and their successors) and much of Afrocentric literature rightly promotes African ideas and solutions for African problems. While the idea in itself is noble, the danger is for Africa to close itself off and ignore 'outside' technical and intellectual innovations that it desperately needs to advance further. Africa through Structuration Theory - ntu-joins the discourse by attempting to restore intellectual freedom and convincingly defends structuration theory not only as the way forward for Africa but also as a legitimately African concept. It is innovative, refreshing and deserves to be heard across the world and appreciated especially by African graduates,'current and future'leaders of various African institutions or businesses, non-Africans who might hesitate to refer to such a theory when trying to understand and deal with African problems and the wider public who constitute the audience for this book. New in this edition: All chapters have been tightened up to make a clearer and more robust case. Chapter three, in particular, has been developed further in an attempt to demonstrate how Ubuntu is an African version of structuration theory. Overall, having both approached the subject from a rational perspective and presented Ubuntu in its preferred version, it became imperative to discuss the status/role of the African body in the expression of human agency and characterise different leadership practices in Africa that do not necessarily reflect the ideals of Ubuntu. Hence, Chapter 6: Body sociology and Africa and Chapter 7: The FS (fear and self-scrutiny) methodology of Ubuntu: a mapping of the field.

Sujets

• African Studies

Informations

• Publié par: Langaa RPCIG
• Date de parution: 15 octobre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789956764853
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

This book has the merit of offering a new perspective on Africa’s leadership problem by using Giddens’ complex structuration theory as an analytical framework. It is creatively and masterfully theoretically argued and empirically concrete

heritage (the old independence freedom fighters turned political leaders and

the danger is for Africa to close itself off and ignore ‘outside’ technical and

human agency and characterise different leadership practices in Africa that do not necessarily reflect the ideals of Ubuntu. Hence, Chapter 6: Body sociology

Ubuntu: a mapping of the field.

of experience in the profession. He holds a BA (Hons) Philosophy, BA (Hons) Theology, PGCE, MSc Leadership & management and is in the final stage of his doctoral programme with Sheffield Hallam University/UK researching English and DRC’s urban primary head teachers’ experiences of school leadership. Other publications: The Unexpected Trapped: Empowering communities… (2016).

AFRICA THROUGH STRUCTURATION THEORY:

AFRICA THROUGH STRUCTURATION THEORY : Outline of the FS (Fear and Self-scrutiny) Methodology of Ubuntu

Jean Pierre Elonga Mboyo

Africa Through Structuration Theory: Outline of the FS (Fear and Self-scrutiny) Methodology of Ubuntu Jean Pierre Elonga Mboyo L a ng a a R esea rch & P u blishing CIG Mankon, Bamenda

Publisher: LangaaRPCIG Langaa Research & Publishing Common Initiative Group P.O. Box 902 Mankon Bamenda North West Region Cameroon [e-mail] www.langaa-rpcig.net Distributed in and outside N. America by African Books Collective [e-mail] www.africanbookcollective.com

ISBN: 978-9956-763-80-1 ©Jean Pierre Elonga Mboyo 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or be stored in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher

Dedication To my beloved and patient wife Marina and adorable children Verison, Fasia Cecille and Tyrell Elonga. My wife and I set out to build the institution called family. When our children came along, each in the uniqueness, they transformed ‘the family’ and together our family is both the medium and product of everyone’s presence. That is also what this book is about.

Acknowledgement Some people set out to write a book. You can tell as you read the first chapter, come across the ‘hindsight’ reference in the fifth chapter and now the additional last two chapters in this new edition that the stages of publication happened as the thinking and writing process developed. Either way, other people around you play a part. I am, therefore, grateful for all the support I got from everyone when I needed my many drafts to be proofread, critiqued for readability, overall clarity and coherence. I will take the blame for any lingering speck of chunkiness. Although some have chosen to remain anonymous, I thank others at the end of the chapters wherever appropriate. All that is left is for me to thank my friends Vincent Asambom (critical friend through 1st edition) and Nicholas Oyugi (critical friend through 2nd edition) who, in our many a discussion, challenged some of my ideas and, in the process, enabled me to crystallise some of my thoughts. Immense gratitude goes to the anonymous referee for his/her constructive suggestions since the first edition and to Paul Close who, through his foreword, brings his wide readership to task to note the pertinence of the central issues being discussed here, and endorse the workability and originality of the proposed methodology of Ubuntu. I am also grateful to the production team at Langaa RPCIG for their patience.

Table of Contents Foreword………………………………………………. ix Preface…………………………………………………. xiii Préface…………………………………………………. xxiii Chapter 1: African-centred leadership and the theory of structuration: a response to Obiakor………………………………… 1 Chapter 2: Structure and agency: (an issue of trust?)……………………………………. 25 Chapter 3: Duality of structures: a (not THE) methodology……………………………. 47 Chapter 4: Double de-contextualisation: a methodological myth or reality?............................... 67 Chapter 5: Higher education in the DRC and Sub-Saharan Africa: duality of structures in action………………………… 86 Chapter 6: Body sociology and Africa………………...107 Chapter 7: The FS (fear and self-scrutiny) methodology of structuration: a mapping of the field………………………………… 125 References……………………………………………...179 Index…………………………………………………... 199

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Foreword Africa through Structuration Theory examines a debate of central importance to the African continent – how education systems can produce leaders to take its various countries forward from post-colonial and post dictatorial rule. It is an extended intellectual essay that would benefit from being read alongside its also recently published practical companion ‘Trapped’ (Elonga Mboyo, 2016a) that translates its developmental framework into practical activities that can be used to construct educational programmes in a variety of settings. Africa through Structuration Theoryis an entirely original piece of work for its combination of scope, conceptualisation, topicality and potential multiple audiences. Further, although its underpinning discipline is sociology, it will have relevance for readers from a variety of other disciplines, including politics and economics. This second edition has responded to reviewers of the first edition who requested a more Afro- centric approach, clearer terms of reference and more discussion of implementation of the key ‘FS’ (Fear x Self-Scrutiny) framework presented, through revisions both within and beyond the 5 original chapters (reviewed by Kasanda, 2016). As outlined in the preface to this edition, chapter 3 now demonstrates more clearly how the interdependencies and collaboration of Ubuntu philosophy are an African version of structuration theory. Two further chapters have also been added. Chapter 6 discusses the status/ role of the African body in the expression of human agency and characterises different leadership practices in Africa that do not necessarily reflect the ideals of Ubuntu. Chapter 7 unpacks the central ‘FS’ framework by discussing the potential for change agency within it. The original contribution to the field is in how this work builds on Obiakor’s study of 2004. This posed two questions.

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