This is a call for contributions to the edited volume Africa’s Infrastructure Globalities: Remaking Transnational Practices through South–South Relations?, organized by the ERC Africa’s Infrastructure Globalities (INFRAGLOB) project at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. The edited volume proposes to refine understandings about the management of Africa’s transnational infrastructure projects and business-society encounters within a framework of South-South relations.
It approaches, more specifically, the roles of Brazilian, Chinese, and Indian actors across the continent – both on their own and in a comparative fashion. We shift attention from the well-documented question about the emergence and intensification of Africa’s South–South relations in recent years to look at their after-lives and durable marks in host environments, particularly as the 2000s commodities supercycle unraveled into a period of more complex market and political dynamics from the mid-2010s.
In doing so, we examine the role of these “emerging powers” in shaping practices of transnational (business) governance in Africa and scrutinize how models and projects have been transformed within local arenas and in interaction with African counterparts.
We look for contributions in the disciplines or intersections of International Relations, Development Studies, Global Political Economy, African Studies, Anthropology, and Political Geography, among other related fields. The book is set to be open access and aims to include a geographically and academically diverse lineup of authors.
Specifically, we are looking for chapters (co-)authored by African scholars that address at least one of the following questions:
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- How unique (or overlapping) are the practices of Chinese, Brazilian, and Indian actors in Africa? How are they compared to their Western counterparts?
- Which ideas, practices, and techniques of domestic governance in the emerging powers travel and become replicated in the management of transnational business projects?
- And to which extent do liberal global governance norms and capitalist standards trump national/cultural footprints and homogenize practices?
Please consider submitting a chapter abstract of 200 words and an author bio of 100 words, including author name(s) and affiliation. We are specifically interested in chapters covering West Africa, the Sahel, and the Horn of Africa. Abstracts by Africa-based and female scholars are particularly welcome.
Send everything to Eric Cezne (Eric.Cezne@uni-bayreuth.de) and Mia Yifan Yang (Yifan.Yang@uni-bayreuth.de). Any other inquiries may also be directed to them. Further information about the book publication process, including writing milestones and authors’ workshops, will be conveyed to selected authors after the deadline.
Deadline for submission of chapter abstracts: 25 June 2021
Editors:
Jana Hönke, Professor at the University of Bayreuth and heads the Sociology of Africa chair group. She directs the ERC INFRAGLOB project Africa’s Infrastructure Globalities and is a Co-Editor of Security Dialogue.
Eric Cezne, Research fellow at the ERC Africa’s Infrastructure Globalities (INFRAGLOB) project and Lecturer in International Relations at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Free University of Amsterdam.
Mia Yifan Yang, Research fellow at the ERC Africa’s Infrastructure Globalities (INFRAGLOB) project and Ph.D. candidate (sociology of Africa) at the University of Bayreuth.