Education is the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) and considered an important gateway to many other SDGs being achieved. Education is, however, frequently interpreted in terms of its... Show moreEducation is the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) and considered an important gateway to many other SDGs being achieved. Education is, however, frequently interpreted in terms of its technical aspects, i.e., furthering skills and knowledge and strengthening human capital for promoting development. By contrast, this paper focuses less on this technical aspect and instead analyses the current educational landscape in Africa as a field in which flows of investment, ideas, and people influence connections between Africans and the rest of the world. As an effect of the structural adjustment programs in the 1980s, public spending on education in many African countries went down, allowing private education initiatives to spring up. These were, for a large part, financed by Western and Arab countries. Over the last fifteen years, investment flows in education from emerging global powers like China, Brazil, Malaysia, and Turkey have contributed to an increasingly diversified educational landscape in Africa. This paper argues that these investments not only allow Africans to improve their educational levels but that these diverse forms of education also have an influence on connections and social orientations in African societies. Educational programs go together with specific worldviews. In addition, people develop their social networks through educational trajectories. Both orientations and connections influence people’s choices and opportunities in their further lives, and thus individual and societal development. Interestingly, often investments in education by external parties are not isolated endeavors, but also used as a means to get linked-in in local societies for such diverse purposes as religion or business interests. Illustrating my argument with examples taken from my research on Gulf charities and on Turkish schools in Africa, I will explore how the new connectivities that come with the changing educational landscape in Africa shape (possible) local development trajectories in the current era of intensified globalization characterized by intensified flows of capital, people, and ideas. Show less
This collective volume explores the ways in which Africa's engagements with an increasingly multipolar world are being reshaped, and, on whose terms. Ch. 2-7 examine new trends in Africa. Ch. 8-13... Show moreThis collective volume explores the ways in which Africa's engagements with an increasingly multipolar world are being reshaped, and, on whose terms. Ch. 2-7 examine new trends in Africa. Ch. 8-13 address the forces, in particular interventions by China, India and the US, that are framing the new global multipolarity and the way multipolarity is being played out. Ch. 14-16 focus on the potential for Africa and Africans to fill the political and economic space that is emerging. Contributions by Ton Dietz, Kjell Havnevik, Mayke Kaag & Terje Oestigaard; Samuel Teshale Derbe;Peer Schouten; Bram Büscher; Sandra Evers, Perrine Burnod, Andrianirina Ratsialonana Rivo & Andre' Teyssier; Wiebe Nauta; Mohamed Salih; Sanne van der Lugt; Gorm Rye Olsen; Liu Haifang & Jamie Monson; Antony Otieno Ong'ayo; Simona Vittorini & David Harris; Peter J. Schraeder; Lloyd G.A. Amoah; Lawrence Ogbo Ugwuanyi; Stephen Ellis. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
Bruijn, M.E. de; Kaag, M.M.A.; Til, A. van; Dijk, J.W.M. van 2005
Climate change is a global problem with local consequences. However, the direction and magnitude of these consequences in extremely vulnerable regions - such as the Sahel - cannot yet be predicted... Show moreClimate change is a global problem with local consequences. However, the direction and magnitude of these consequences in extremely vulnerable regions - such as the Sahel - cannot yet be predicted with any certainty. The studies in this volume focus on people for whom climate variability, mainly rainfall, is a more immediate and urgent problem than climate change itself. They demonstrate how small-scale communities in south and central Mali are coping with the sudden changes in their ecological environment and are making decisions concerning their livelihoods under high-risk conditions. This book is a result of the climate change project. Show less
