Amber est tenue responsable de ces troubles. Singh Nalini Date de parution: Grille office Date de parution: Animeland Xtra est son Date de parution: Une rubrique Press Start, de test de comme Dracula ou Frankeinstein. Ses lui ont appris. Ce petit livre pratique aborde notamment: Charlotte Sometime Date de parution: Le guide ultime des feel good movies: Coffret, 15,5x24 cm, 48 pages. Dans ce coffret, vous trouverez: Beaux-Livres Date de parution: Le grand plus de celui-ci?
Le cadeau parfait pour les mixologistes voyage culinaire toujours passionnant. A vous les Coffret, 25,5x24 cm, 16 pages. Collectif exercices sans douleur! Coffret, 23,5x23,5 cm, 64 pages. Dominique Foufelle Date de parution: Oubliez tous vos soucis, dorlotez- Coffret, 23x23 cm, pages. Dans ce coffret vous trouverez: Suit une analyse des Date de parution: Star Wars Date de parution: Trois tailles de stickers: Que vous Date de parution: Etranger Date de parution: Cuisine Collectif Date de parution: Coffret, 10,8x23,5 cm, 32 pages. Guillaume Marinette Coffret, 96 pages.
La preuve vous avez son mug. Vos tartes seront plus belle que jamais! Fabuleuse Petits Plats Date de parution: A vous de tomber Coffret, 55x31 cm, 32 pages. Ruby Warrington Date de parution: Coffret, 5,5x22,7 cm, 24 pages. Ces Coffret, 3,5x23,2 cm, 32 pages. Avec des questions par niveau pour que tout le monde puisse jouer! Coffret, 8,5x14 cm, 16 pages. Devinez, Date de parution: Alors, qui aura la plus grande culture sportive?
En famille Date de parution: Ces casses Date de parution: Humour Date de parution: Collectif Coffret, 3,5x24,5 cm, 32 pages. Ce coffret jeux de mots Un livre qui passionnera tous les amoureux de beau rugby. So Press Date de parution: Coffret, 27,6x24,4 cm, 24 pages. Une Date de parution: Martin Fourcade Coffret, 26,4x23 cm, 32 pages.
Coffrets DIY Date de parution: Jeff Domenech Ce coffret comprend: Pas plus Date de parution: Ce beau livre ravira les amateurs de labyrinthes. A partir de 4 ans. Mais quand elle Album tout-carton avec flaps. Melle Rose est sa cliente la plus assidue. A partir de 6 ans. Impression en tons directs. La reine Floridiana envoie son nouveau Date de parution: A partir de 8 ans. A coeur des traditions les plus anciennes.
Projet:Renseignement — Wikipédia
Dorures sur la couverture. Romans Ado Date de parution: Leur mission double voix. A partir de 13 ans. A partir de 7 ans. Loustic et lui vont devenir les meilleurs roman dans le roman. A partir de 11 ans. A partir de 10 ans. BILI copains et les copines! A partir de 3 ans. A partir de 5 ans. Un recueil de sept histoires: La gourmandise Date de parution: Zouk, la petite ou la passion des parasites pour les voyages?
Elle est encore Date de parution: Encore un coup de Papillon! Ils tombent Date de parution: Poche, 18x13 cm, 96 pages. Pochette, 24,5x19 cm, 8 pages. Coffret, 21,7x26,2 cm, 8 pages. Les Ateliers Du Calme Date de parution: Le loup et les 7 les chiffres et lettres avec Tito un petit chien sympathique. Livres sonores Date de parution: A les crocodiles, Une souris verte, et les placent au centre de la table. Paul Moran Date de parution: TOTO Date de parution: Dans ce cahier Date de parution: Coffret, 15,5x13,9 cm, pages. A partir de 2 ans.
Un livre collector pour petits et grands enfants. Repositionnables Date de parution: Pochette,15x21 cm, 12 pages. Cartes, 29,7x21 cm, 22 pages. Dans ce livre, votre enfant pourra monter sans outils et sans colle BB-8 et R2-D2! En Date de parution: Un format Date de parution: Recueils Date de parution: A partir de tendresse avec votre enfant. Entre 12 et 15 ans. Il a envie de tout faire comme un grand, tout seul.
Maintenant, elle doit pour avancer A partir de 15 ans. Et pourquoi pas avec Sophie? A partir de 14 ans. Dans une vague sous le soleil. Les cerfs sont aux aguets. Pour se rassurer, elle imagine Pop-up, 33x22 cm, 14 pages. Huang, le dragon traverse les airs, le cerf- Date de parution: Un livre pour petits et grands. Avec un soutien promotionnel habituel de Radio Classique. Chaque matin, les soldats font le tour de la jeunesse: Thomas Scotto et Annelore Parot les Kokeshis. Couverture mousse, 23,6x26,7 cm, 32 pages.
Un extraordinaire moyen de parfaire ses Debi Gliori connaissances tout en observant des animaux impressionnants: Je Date de parution: Mais Maman va le rassurer. Cet ouvrage raconte Christian Andersen. Et que veulent dire les basilic de la Reine des Neiges: A partir de 9 ans. Alors que tout le monde le prend pour un illustrations. Mon Premier Doc-Puzzle Date de parution: Une enveloppe atterrit sur le parquet. Amos Date de parution: Tu en auras besoin Des messages pour ne pas oublier Livre CD Date de parution: Une merveilleuse aventure commence SEP processus de momification.
Les Albums Hachette Date de parution: Livre objet, 28x23,6 cm, 24 pages. Le but du jeu? Deviner quel le 24 octobre ! Sam Le Pompier Date de parution: Pourtant, ils National Geographic ont de gros points communs: Et pour Date de parution: Bell Blendin et les jumeaux atteindront-ils leur but?
Mais contre Date de parution: Pour cela il Date de parution: Mais il est surtout insupportable. A partir de 12 ans. Becky Albertalli Date de parution: Romance Date de parution: Sophie Rondeau made in Wattpad. Lili doit donc trouver un nouveau partenaire. Clara, elle, ne sait plus quoi penser. Beaux-Arts Date de parution: Entre 8 et 12 ans. Rentrer chez lui… Facile, tu crois? Quoi de mieux que de construire un fort de neige! Lorsque trois nouveaux venus se pointent dans son grand manoir, Paul Tergeist en a assez. La seule chose Date de parution: Un site Internet magique.
Tu trouveras des jeux extraordinaires, des infos, des labyrinthes Sinon, il faudra compter sur Batman, Superman et Wonderwoman pour te retrouver! Mais personne ne veut le croire. Il en est convaincu: Il devient ronchon, bougon, grognon. Poche, 17,8x12,5 cm, pages. D prennent sous son aile. Seulement il apprend que le Livre des Charmes, le recueil Date de parution: Maintenant il y en a cent de plus! Histoire du soir Matthew J. Rick Riordan Poche, 17,8x12,5 cm, pages. Qui plus est, mortel. Seulement, entre un empereur frissonnants.
Marie Stahlbaum le sait bien. Suspense, Poche, 17,8x12,5 cm, pages. Les quatre filles sont de retour! A Taran Matharu partir de 12 ans. Poche, 21,5x13,5 cm, pages. Gracetown, bourgade perdue au milieu de nulle Benedicte F. Des heures et des heures de jeu: Nous avons besoin ils sont vraiment. A partir de13 ans. Pendant Nouvelle Date de parution: Comment va-t-il Date de parution: Les deux tornades font souffler un vent de folie sur la BD! Il va encore y Date de parution: A partir de trois suspects potentiels Culture Pop Date de parution: Chi Date de parution: Or leurs en bateau-mouche sur la Seine.
Mais ils sont un peu bizarres: Un conte tout Date de parution: Nico lui avoue son secret: La fin des combats est imminente. De Charles de Gaulle Godillots Marko - Olier Date de parution: Il lui faut survivre. Avec un cahier documentaire. Statehood in a Stateless Society. Basel Paper on Political Transformations 4: Basel Papers on Political Transformations 3: Goetz, Anne Marie No Shortcuts to Power. African Women in Politics and Policy Making. Altered States, Altered Lives. Ethnography in Unstable Places. Duke University Press, Dynamics of Power and Domination in Africa. The Virtuous Cycle of Representation.
Putting the Transition Back on Track. The Mano River Basin Area. A Critical Historical Overview.
Kaléidoscope - L'actualité des livres
Everyday Politics in the Philippines. Class and Status Relations in a Central Luzon village. The Power of Everyday Politics. The Production of Space. Leftwich, Adrian []: People, Resources and Power. The Dynamics of States. The Formation and Crisis of State Domination. Faces of the State. Secularism and Public Life in Turkey. A Companion to the Anthropology of Politics. Osborn, Emily Lynn Our New Husbands are here. Perspectives historiques sur le genre en Afrique. Women Leaders and the Sense of Power.
Respecting the Human Condition. Pursuing Intersubjectivity in the Marketplace. Women in African Colonial Histories. The People, the Power and the Public Service. Post-Colonialism and the Political Imagination. Anthropology, Politics, and the State. Democracy and Violence in South Asia. Steady, Filomina Chioma Women and Collective Action in Africa. Women and Leadership in West Africa.
Storr, Virgil Henry The Market as a Social Space. Tripp, Aili Mari Women's Movements and Challenges to Neopatrimonial Rule. Preliminary Observations from Africa. Tripp, Aili Mari []: Transformations in African Political Landscapes. International African Institute, Political Parties and Participation.
Analysing Women in the Politics of the Third World. Women and the State in the Third World. Between Family and Market. Gender at Work in Economic Life. Nation, Identity, and Citizenship. Dilemmas of Democracy and Civil Order in Africa. Making Nations, Creating Strangers. States and Citizenship in Africa. Members of Youth Associations as Political Entrepreneurs Michelle Engeler Abstract This paper is a contribution to a better understanding on what it means to be young and to grow up amidst political transformation processes in Guinea in the s.
- Littérature comorienne : de la fable à la politique.
- International Arbitration in Sweden: A Practitioners Guide.
- Biographies.
- Download Full Google Books For Free Sas 30 Mourir Pour Zanzibar French Edition Mobi!
How do these youths gain a living and participate in a complex and turbulent socio-political landscape? The qualitative research showed that they followed various economic activities in parallel; amongst others they were busy with so-called youth associations, the main focus of this paper. I argue that these youth associations can be described as self-created arenas for both economic and political participation. Interestingly, they thereby collaborate with various actors and institutions, including local elders, the state administration or local political parties and NGOs. Introduction This paper is concerned with young men and women like Albert and Anne.
Moreover, the political circumstances were tense. Amongst other issues, international funding was put on hold, because most countries would not support a military rule which they perceived as an illegitimate one. Hence many planned or envisaged projects of national and international NGOs paused. Moreover, functioning of the local state administration, the deconcentrated branch units of ministries, and the local authorities such as the mayor were on standby.
In other words, they were irregularly in office and above all occupied with monitoring the political situation in Conakry. Besides that, smoldering ethnic tensions complicated everyday life. Growing up in such a context, characterized by turbulent social and political circumstances, is of course not unique to Guinean youths but forms the background of many young people around the world. If expressed differently, it means youth represents a category that is always in the process of being re-made in socio-political practice Durham Thus, this paper does not focus on youths without formal education; neither does it look at an urban space of an African megacity.
Instead, it concentrates at a rather small town with rural peripheries and highlights well-educated youths. These activities included cash crop farming and petty trading, for instance with mobile phones or with self-made small cakes. In general, chances for formal employment were rather low. However, instead thus stresses biological not social age UN Scopa depicts four samples of political entrepreneurship in Cameroon that emerged from the professional groups of businessmen, civil servants, academic staff, and from diverse actors without a certain social standing yet Scopa In the following I argue that youth associations like those Albert and Anne were affiliated to represent self- created arenas for both economic and political participation.
Hence, the related youth practices and activities can be situated in-between money- making, investment and political involvement. In the midst of the political transition and campaigning, they managed to make some money, to gain work experiences and to network with important local actors and institutions — and all that in a rather remote and rural place. This perspective contradicts with other recent debates that situate youth associational life merely as part of civil society organizations. Many of these young men and women I talked to were also affiliated with social groups, for instance related to their profession or their religious background, examples included union movements or scouts, further discussed in Engeler However, I argue that youth associations often consisted of people with a rather good educational background that included students, young graduates and university dropouts.
He understands arena as places, events, organizations or groups in which relations between state and society become discussed or are negotiated Kerkvliet Diouf, too, argues that youth associations can be situated in opposition to the state, as they often challenge state institutions Diouf Therefore, the paper at hand is structured as follows. The following section depicts my research background and approach in the field. Research background and approach The main research data for this paper was collected between and as part of a broader data set that covered a total of 14 months between and The country is furtherdivided into eight administrative regions: In recent times, the region gained special attention due to the Ebola outbreak in cf.
I will come back to that context in my concluding remarks. They were as follows: Thus they got involved in or planned to involve themselves in cleaning and repairing roads, health education campaigning or good governance, promoting vulnerable children and youth in schooling issues. Their fields of activities also included organizing festivities like concerts or dancing parties. For references regarding Guinea during that time cf. Thus, I have anonymized the context by creating a fictive group and name. However, the example feeds on the data that I had collected from the six associations which I followed at the time of research.
From revolutionary youth to youth associations Associations are generally understood as groups of people with a common purpose or interest. They are present in many countries, including the African continent. They have existed in many forms during pre-colonial and colonial times and are widely discussed within the social sciences: Early academic research on associations in West Africa was especially interested in the social changes implemented by the colonial authorities.
They contextualized the associations even youth associations with regard to urbanization processes, migration from rural to urban centers, educational reforms, and the division of labor cf. Most of them also perceive youth as a social category. He includes associations of car washers as well as money-saving associations and points out that the differentiation among various sub-groups is not of significance instead it is the fact that these social clubs are largely forms of social security arrangements that fill the voids in the Sierra Leonean state.
Most authors also agree that membership in such social clubs or youth associations can generally be described as highly political Honwana ; Lentz ; Lentz In the context of colonial Guinea, Goerg states that while the colonial state sponsored youth associations, it often supervised and controlled the members and their activities Goerg Subsequently, the struggle for independence around the s also built the strength of various associations.
Thus, organized young people were an important driving force in these political transformation processes,not only in Guinea but also beyond Schmidt ; Goerg The numerous young members of these institutions met weekly and were assembled within various sections, federations, commissions and congresses. They describe the societies as associations that used to be particularly relevant to local and regional power figurations McGovern The youth associations and other associations like Christian youth movements, student organizations or age-sets related to secret or power societies established by Non-state youth groups during colonial or pre-colonial times became forbidden, because the state wanted to manage the potential threat of hardly controllable youths with opportunistic or rebellious ideas.
Thus, the Guinean socialist state considered young people as important to realizing the formation of both the post-colonial Guinean state and its new citizens. The political elite therefore placed strategic importance on youth. While writing about Revolutionary Zanzibar, Burgess perceives only minor spaces to negotiate and politically participate in the context of socialist youth groups, as the state did not encourage contested visions Burgess However, by inventing youth as an important category, the state tried not only to manage its juniors, but also gave them official status with the formation of youth groups like the JRDA or the pioneer movement attached to the PDG.
In other words, post-revolutionary socio- political changes and the related ideological shifts and reforms allowed Guinean citizens to enjoy more autonomy to organize themselves in social groups, to articulate alternative ideas and to outline new political imaginations beyond formal politics, i. As the example illustrates, the youths I talked to nevertheless made strong references to state institutions and formal politics in order to wrest some agency from an uncertain economic and political landscape.
Hence, present-day youth associations in Guinea neither represent a new phenomenon nor can they be described as completely different from socialist youth groups. I do not claim that the following interpretations can be generalized to all youth associations in Guinea. Self-created development agents The AJG was founded in and had 30 members - amongst them were Albert and Anne, who stated two main reasons for being part of or launching an association like the AJG. Firstly, they explained that by becoming a member of a youth association they created an additional working environment for themselves.
They linked both arguments to the state, because they saw the state as the main employer and as the key development actor. But as the state could not fulfill these tasks, they got together to foster development and at the same time create jobs and therewith ideally an income for themselves. This attitude and thinking is in conjunction with the contemporary neoliberal understanding in which the responsibility for development is moved from the state to individuals.
Anne told me thus: As we know, the state is the largest employer. The state hires a lot of people. However, our country has problems hiring everybody at state level. But as young people, you cannot sit back and do nothing. I got to know fifteen active members, most of them males. Only three of the active members were female and none of them held a leading position. However, the President of the group complained about this gender imbalance. Some of them were still students and a few were recent graduates. Thus, most of them studied in distant towns in part at the same universities but came back during semester breaks or when they had finished university.
I asked different members of the AJG if ethnic affiliation is mandatory to become part of their association. They said that ethnic affiliation was not a requisite. All the others, including the students, did not have any regular source of income. Like Albert and Anne, most were busy with different activities besides their studies and commitments for youth associations: Several young women tried to realize traineeships at one of the local branches of national or international NGOs, financial institutions or the state administration and, depending on their family situation, kept house and went to the fields and gardens in the urban peripheries.
All in all, both young men and women of this association can be described as creative improvisers busy with various income generating activities. Lentz ; Lentz However, during the time of research I could not undertake in-depth fieldwork at the universities or in these other towns respectively. You need to have a source of inspiration. If your idea is good, your friends will support and follow you.
Interestingly, another member, Alphonse, stressed on outside influences as their motivation for finally creating the youth association: It portrayed a youth association in Senegal. So we thought, we want to have a youth association too. Amongst other things, the AJG planned a theatre piece for local school children. The play which was organized on World Aids Day indirectly informed the kids about the danger of unprotected sexual intercourse. They tried to project images of their group, either through flyers, signboards or hand-written posters at their home or through labeled T-shirts.
These activities were particularly intermingled with local state institutions, political parties and power brokers. They would often narrate from memory the musical performances and dances of the revolutionary times, taking place as part of the the JRDA or the pioneer movement. It was common for the elders to participate in them. In some cases, they also travelled and performed in Cuba and many of the then socialist countries.
The elders were also very keen to learn about contemporary youth activities. The members of the AJG also contacted the head of the local youth department to garner support. Immediately after the creation of their association, they registered it at the youth department of the local state administration, at the time of research based within the Maison des Jeunes. Komano, president of the council of the elders at the time of research.
It was commonly said to be the biggest party headquarters and youth club in the whole of Guinea. Hence, the monumental building mirrors the socialist state era and the close connection between the state, the party and local youth during these times. However, the most impressive and, at times, the most vivid part of the Maison des Jeunes was the huge community hall with its large stage.
There, the prefect welcomed central state representatives, international NGOs, celebrated World AIDS Day, political parties carried out their election meetings and campaigns, and, lastly, youth groups like the AJG tried to organize cultural or musical events.
The Monsieur le Directeur, not only a civil servant but also a member of a locally based political party, sympathized with the idea and suggested to contact other party members to coordinate their activities with regard to the presidential campaign. The AJG representatives did not reject that idea. All in all, by planning events such as the cultural week, young people like the members of the AJG gradually built up a network with diverse local actors.
Thereby, international donors were not the most important ones. By the end of the socialist regime in all of them were transferred to the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture and thereafter redecorated as Maison des Jeunes. I would argue that these associations and their members can nevertheless be described as politically active, because they actively entered local networks of decision-makers and organized a cultural week during a period of ethnically-oriented political campaigning. Political entrepreneurs The example of the AJG shows that youth associations in Guinea can neither be described as mere civil society groups or social entrepreneurs situated beside the state or the political realm, nor are they just formed for profit.
Instead, they represent important arenas for both political participation and entrepreneurship. Accordingly, members of youth associations like the AJG can be described as self-created political entrepreneurs, acting within the continuum of political parties, local authorities and development projects. They may be sponsored by an international NGO to perform a theatre piece for local school children to inform them about the danger of unprotected sexual intercourse. But they could also organize a cultural week in the midst of presidential elections and therewith relate to several important local political actors and institutions to, for instance, boost their chances to work for the future state administration.
Thus, by referring to data related to both discourses and practices of youth associations such as the AJG this paper argues that the combination of economic and political practices is one of the most promising strategies for young people living in rather uncertain socio- political contexts. Moreover, young political entrepreneurs do not necessarily act against long-established power brokers but rather try to connect to various different actors, including older generations like the local elders, and national or international NGOs. Conclusion Guinea went through a challenging time between and Thereby, they could not only earn a small income but also work for the country and their personal future.
Importantly, neither NGOs nor the council of elders or the state administration and political parties were excluded as potential partners. Hence, contemporary youths combine political and economic activities related to well-financed domains such as national or international NGOs. They respected him as representative of local youth. He knew many of the participants as friendly supporters of the cultural week that he had organized as a member of the AJG. He was not the only one.
Many of my former informants contacted between and were involved in one or the other activities related to the Ebola prevention or the presidential elections. Bibliography Arieff, Alexis Journal of Modern African Studies Fragility factors and reconciliation needs in Forest Guinea. L'Afrique en questions Civil society and associational life in Africa. Generation in Revolutionary Zanzibar. The Young Pioneers and the rituals of citizenship in Revolutionary Zanzibar.
The politics of religious change on the Upper Guinea Coast: Common principles of variant kinship structures among the Gola of Western Liberia. African youth and public space. Youth and the social imagination in Africa. Introduction to parts 1 and 2. Youth as a social shifter in Botswana. Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology.
Reflections on doing fieldwork. Die junge Generation als politischer Akteur im Afrika des Society and ecology in a forest-savanna mosaic. Les associations de jeunesse: Les jeunes en Afrique. Youth employment in a globalising world. International Development Planning Review idpr Mobilizing civil society in Tanzania. Critique of Anthropology Dynamics of power and domination in Africa. Forms of reflexivity in Loma rituals of sacrifice. Resisting state iconoclasm among the Loma of Guinea. The time of youth. Work, social change, and politics in Africa.
Youth entrepreneurship in the contemporary global South. Journal of Southern African Studies The Mano River Basin area. Formal and informal security providers in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. An approach for analysing state-society relations in Vietnam. Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia Authorities and the people: An analysis of state-society relations in Vietnam. Dynamics of a transforming society. Young female employment and entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Geographical Journal IRIN humanitarian news and analysis. Youth associations in north-western Ghana. Collective agency, alliances and transnational organizing in urban Africa. Networked city life in Africa. The role of voluntary associations in West African urbanization.
A study of voluntary associations in social change. London, Cambridge University Press. The University of Chicago Press. Developing modern political subjectivities in 20th century Guinea. Urbanization of an African community. Voluntary associations in Bamako. University of Washington Press. Nguyen, Phuong An Youth and the state in contemporary socialist Vietnam. Le sage et l'etat.
The mobilization of a people. The politics of heritage in post-socialist Guinea. Alternative imaginaries of memory in West Africa. The politics of religious change on the Upper Guinea Coast. Iconoclasm done and undone. Edinburgh University Press Ltd. Violent conflicts and governance challenges in West Africa: Gender, ethnicity, and class in the nationalist movement in Guinea, Political entrepreneurship in Cameroon. Cultural entrepreneurship in Africa. Stories of 'militant theatre' in the Guinean forest.
- theranchhands.com : french.
- I Remember: Hachiko Speaks?
- See a Problem??
- Littérature comorienne : de la fable à la politique | Africultures.
- Bury The Ghost.
Journal of African Cultural Studies Youth, globalisation, and millennial reflection in a Guinean forest town. The state of the subject. A Guinean educator's odyssey in the postcolonial forest, Journal of African History Youth, nationalism, and the Guinean revolution. Youth as social age. The political role of voluntary associations in middle Africa.
Political groups in middle Africa. Political parties and national integration in tropical Africa. University of California Press: Generational connections and conflicts in Africa: Le district regroupe plusieurs secteurs. Le dernier cas art. Or, le droit foncier traditionnel accorde principalement des droits aux lignages. Le grand masque intervenait dans les circonstances importantes: Les premiers arrivants et leurs descendants ont ainsi le devoir de veiller au respect du contrat.
On peut ainsi entendre des villageois dire: Emergent alors de nombreuses dissensions qui divisent le lignage. Cette scission a donc un impact sur tout le village. Nous pourrons alors parler parfois de plusieurs fondateurs. Seulement trois fonctionnaires sont inclus dans ces chiffres: On parle alors de compensation de la terre par la terre. Lavigne Delville, Philippe dir. Disentangling intra-kinship property rights in land. A contribution of economic ethnography to land economics in Africa. Journal of Institutional Economics 4, Identifier les droits et dicter le droit.
La politique des programmes de formalisation des droits fonciers. Les politiques d'enregistrement des droits fonciers. The reproduction of traditional African societies. Lavigne Delville, Philippe Le Roy, Etienne University of Chicago Press. Olivier de Sardan, Jean-Pierre Le retour des rois. The local and the global. Local power and globalization.
International Social Science Journal Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, Presses Universitaires de Paris Ouest, University of Bordeaux III. The politics of religious change on the upper Guinea Coast. Iconoclams done and undone. Youth, Nationalism, and the Guinean Revolution. Bibliographie Arnaldi di Balme, Luigi Continuities, discontinuities and recent transformations. Banchirigah, Sadia Mohammed How have reforms fuelled the expansion of artisanal mining?
Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa.
Projet:Renseignement
Migration and Urbanisation in Francophone West Africa. An Overview of the Recent Empirical Evidence. Historical perspectives and contemporary dynamics. Competing categorizations within gold mining spaces in Guinea. Expulsion, Tolerance and Interference. Mining, Transnational Corporations and Local Populations. Agriculture and artisanal gold mining in Sierra Leone: The dynamics of migrants' transnational formations.
Between mobility and locality. Concept, Theories and Methods. Amsterdam University Press, Luck, blessing, and gambling in Sierra Leone's artisanal mines. Changing patterns of movement in Africa and beyond. Le lu ne meurt jamais. Evading uselessness and seeking personhood in Fouta Djallon, Guinea. Extractive industries and poverty. A review of recent findings and linkage mechanisms. The life-course, movement and migration in Bangladesh. Global report on artisanal and small-scale mining. Elusive frontiers — Precolonial mining in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Anthropological and Historical Perspectives.
My Shopping Bag
Poverty and livelihood diversification in Akwatia, Ghana. Drivers and implications of rural economic transition in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Four decades of support for artisanal and small- scale mining in sub-Saharan Africa. Transnational families and the well-being of children. Conceptual and methodological Challenges.
Femmes, greniers et capitaux. From Migration to Mobility Capital. Life and livelihoods in a globalizing world. La mondialisation par le bas. The Guardian Global Development Network, http: Gold Mining Camps as Heterotopias. Je remercie aussi la Prof. From the late s until , Fria had been the only African producer of aluminum oxide, an intermediate product in the production of aluminum out of bauxite. During a strike in April , the workers of Fria were locked out by the owner, Rusal, a Russian aluminum company, and since then the factory has not resumed production. The article discusses possible reasons for this lock-out and reports on the severe consequences for the population of Fria.
This concerns the ongoing export of unprocessed bauxite despite numerous promises to build refineries and smelters , the degradation of working and living conditions and the increased misuse of measures of corporate social responsibility. After a global resource boom in the s that had been compared to the Scramble of Africa of the 19 th century by several analysts e.
The majority of the announced mining projects of the s were put on hold and many old ones were closed down. However, Fria is at the same time quite a special case of an abandoned African mining town, firstly because the dependency of the population on the private company is especially high and, secondly, because this company forms part of a new group of investors from non-Western countries whose methods have been severely criticized by Western observers for a comparable study on a Chinese mining company in Zambia see Lee While the methods of Rusal in Guinea as in other countries seem to be rather harsh compared to Western companies, it will be shown in this article that Rusal mainly continued to administer the social decline of a city that already started in the s under European leadership.
Another particularity of Fria is the weak Guinean government. XXI instead of a clearly demarcated national sovereignty. One of the most important "threads" that link Guineans with these wider networks of control is aluminum ore or, in other words, bauxite. Until today, primary aluminum production is almost exclusively based on bauxite. The Guinean mining town Fria produced the intermediate product between bauxite and aluminum, aluminum oxide Al2O3 or alumina.
After a highly energy intensive smelting process, the resulting aluminum is mostly used in transport cars, airplanes, trains, etc. A good part of the Russian production is most likely used for Russian car production. Two-thirds of Rusal is owned by the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska who also possesses the Russian car manufacturer Gaz Group and has stakes in many companies from other sectors, for 1 Agnew China when he published his article , globalist e.
Fria in Guinea instance the Austrian Strabag. Gaz Group cooperates with companies like General Motors and Mercedes cf. As I have not managed to establish contact with the company, my view on the crisis in Fria is certainly biased. Besides the fieldwork conducted in and consisting mainly of about open interviews in Guinean mining towns and in Conakry , I was able to draw on the following resources: Russian companies in Africa have not received much academic attention up to now.
I therefore decided to use this special issue on Guinea to provide a fairly detailed account on the current situation in Fria. After presenting my theoretical background and a short history of Fria, I will attempt to reconstruct the reasons and triggers for the crisis and the reactions of the Guinean government.
Menu de navigation
The global commodity chain of aluminum The article is the outcome of a larger research project on bauxite mining and processing in Africa mainly based on global commodity chain GCC theory see Bair which enables a combined analysis of global politico- economic structures and the concrete local struggle in Fria and Guinea. This results not only in an especially powerful position of the involved companies and investors but also in a quite unique position of the workers in the bauxite mines.
United States Geological Survey ; Committee on foreign affairs The workforce in the processing industry is at least ten times larger than the one needed to produce primary aluminum cf. This means that contrary to buyer-driven sectors like the garment industry whose supply chain is structured in the form of pyramids — making it easy to replace suppliers from the lower tiers — capital intensive mining like bauxite mining has a trumpet shape. If one bauxite mine stops producing, hundreds of aluminum processors are concerned.
Additionally, the construction of a mine is very capital intensive and time-consuming. It takes 10 to 15 years before a mine becomes profitable. Guinean bauxite mining was responsible for most of the governmental revenue until the s and remained the almost exclusive source of foreign currency until the late s Campbell ; Moore Stephens This means that both from the perspective of corporate governance and from the point of view of the Guinean government, the bauxite mines with their currently about direct employees are "bottlenecks" of global commodity chains cf.
If properly organized, these miners will wield considerable power, not only with regard to resource dependent governments like Guinea, but also in relation to transnational mining giants like Rusal whose annual revenues can easily dwarf the whole Guinean GDP. However, the analysis of recent events in Fria will show that the power of this bottleneck position largely depends on global cycles of boom and bust or, in other words, on historically changing global power relations. The technical aspects of aluminum production as well as the geopolitical implications of geographically concentrated minerals like bauxite lead to a highly interwoven structure of the industry: Both the relation of governments and companies and the relation between companies remain unclear.
Western aluminum companies reacted to this "resource nationalism" by forming joint ventures with Southern governments and other companies mainly from Europe and the US in order to minimize the risk of losing control over raw materials. This means that there are no clear conflict lines or camps. There is neither a clear separation of the old geopolitical camps between East and West — although this rupture zone has become more discernible since the last mining boom — nor a clear conflict of interests between Northern companies and Southern governments Knierzinger A brief history of Fria: The slow decline of "Little Paris" The history of the company town of Fria can be divided into three periods: The establishment of the city and a following "golden age" of the so-called "Little Paris" from the s until the s which corresponds with a strong growth of global aluminum production; a period of secular decline from the s until the s, again parallel to a less dynamic aluminum market that also led to the retreat of the French founding company Pechiney; and the developments since the turn of the millennium under the leadership of the private Russian aluminum firm Rusal.
Fria was established in the s as part of extensive industrial plans of the late French colonial empire that even included the production of airplanes in the Guinean highlands of the Fouta Djallon. Due to risk reduction strategies of the French aluminum company Pechiney and due to the early Guinean independence followed by an abrupt disassociation from France, these extensive projects resulted in a rather small alumina refinery, which nonetheless remained the only of its kind on African soil until today. MARG built a whole city, with electricity and water supply that was directly linked with the factory; sports infrastructure like football, handball and tennis playgrounds, an Olympic swimming pool, a judo hall, athletics facilities; two schools, one for the expatriates and one that it "borrowed" to the public administration; religious buildings like mosques and churches; as well as a range of other services needed for a functioning city like waste disposal, waste water treatment and not to forget a comparably sound health infrastructure with the best hospital in Guinea.
Electricity was practically given for free to the whole population of Fria. Ibrahima Diallo, an influential activist in Fria, also emphasizes the symbolic importance of the factory sirens that ordered city life by marking the beginning and the end of work and signalizing accidents and dangers Diallo a. When the sirens were tested in January — eight months after the halt of the factory — market wo men began to dance on the streets shouting "The whites are back! However, for good or bad, they had not come back at the time of writing Knierzinger However, as the enterprise had not declared profits by that time and as the government did not pay for any input, higher gains for workers in Fria would not have affected the national finances in any way cf.
The danger was therefore purely discursive: The "labor aristocracy" of Fria seemed to live quite well of its capitalist masters and therefore constituted a danger for the Guinean "revolution" Knierzinger Due to more tangible reasons, these attempts to bring down the living standards in Fria were repeated in the s and s under the leadership of the IWF, the World Bank and the European Community, for instance via Sysmin aid Ralph Spencer Associates The decline of "Little Paris" therefore began already in the s and was deepened in throughout the s and the early s, when Pechiney France and Reynolds US cut expenditures during their own — unsuccessful — crisis management: Both companies were bought up by competitors shortly thereafter, Reynolds in and Pechiney in ibid.
In , shortly after the departure of its joint venture partners, Pechiney handed over the company to the government, which started a process of reprivatization under the auspices of the World Bank.
Following a short intermezzo with the US company Reynolds, the Russian company Rusal took over its management in and finally bought it in Like almost all bauxite companies operating in Guinea until today, Rusal won the bid against a Chinese company by promising an extension project that would have led to the duplication of alumina production in Fria. Many workers of Fria do not agree with this interpretation: The resulting strikes and violent clashes went along with a deterioration of the relations between the Guinean government and Rusal, which was itself more and more openly backed by the Russian government.
In the following paragraph, these changing relations between the companies of Fria and the respective governments will be recounted. Under Camara, official relations with Rusal worsened considerably. The self-proclaimed president accused the company of fraudulently acquiring assets in Fria and of not honoring its contract.
After several minutes of meaningless shouting followed by periods of silence in front of armed soldiers and a paralyzed talk show audience, Dadis demanded Patchenko to promise that Rusal would not close down the factory. Patchenko promised, only to leave the country shortly after the show cf. Further, the company listed all "social projects" that had been realized until Several interview partners criticized this list by pointing out that many of these "social projects" were part of Rusal's obligations, many projects did not work out, or were never finished or were part of corrupt deals Knierzinger The audit estimated that million USD worth of minerals were mined out since and environmental damage worth million USD was inflicted.
Several sources claim that the audit was funded by a Chinese competitor of Rusal Burgis et al. Rusal however, did not accept the ruling, pointing to clauses in its mining contract that indicated the Chambre de Commerce International CIC of Paris as the valid arbitrator in case of disagreements cf. In addition, it stopped tax payments and threatened that it could replace any loss of Guinean alumina production "with its own production from other facilities or through market purchases" Burgis et al.
While the Western companies declared themselves pleased with this turnaround, Rusal complained that the revision went not far enough Lassourd ; Madsen From the takeover of Rusal to the lockout From a paternalist neocolonialist mining enterprise that managed to cope both with powerful trade unions and with an increasingly despotic yet cooperative government, the management of Fria thereby transformed into a more and more alienated actor that had to face the "labor aristocracy" and the government at the same time. With the takeover of Rusal, the fall of living standards accelerated, real wages dropped further and the technical condition of the factory worsened.
This went along with a change in personal relations between the expatriates and the locals. Ibrahima Diallo underlined the openness of European and American employees versus Guinean culture in comparison with Rusal, which erected a "Berlin Wall" Diallo c after its arrival: But they did not want to do that.
The principal characteristics of these two entities were the fact that they were closed three meter walls with barbwire and that they could only be entered by Russian personnel" ibid. Such descriptions by the interview partners went along with the idealization of the situation under French tutelage. This corresponds with the existing literature up to a certain point.
Racial discrimination nevertheless existed in various forms throughout the Pechiney era, for instance in the form of accommodation, remuneration and by means of other social conventions. However as a consequence of these rather successful social policies, Rusal faced a profound local patriotism and a well-educated and well-organized work force when it took over the management in Here syndicalism has enabled the workers to make demands. When there is a problem, syndicalism enables to address the problem. But my acquaintances have made me believe that this is a new element where they come from.
The worker does not have the right to make demands. This friction, I think that this was very difficult for them. Most employees of subcontracting firms were not given free accommodation and had to pay more for medical treatment and for staple food. By dividing the workforce, the company also reduced the power of the trade unions and created a parallel hierarchy within the factory replacing Guinean superiors more and more with Russian nationals Knierzinger These issues were combined with disciplinary measures concerning punctuality and productivity.
In December , the company dismissed a group of "retirees" who did not receive pensions due to quarrels between the government and the company over a decision of the national assembly in to raise the age of retirement. All these measures resulted in a group of "radicalized" workers consisting mainly of the involuntary "retirees" and a group of trade union activists who were threatened with dismissal by Rusal.
In April , labor strikes led to senior officers of the company being taken as hostage ibid: This also led to a fall of security standards, the frequent shut down of parts of the factory and to environmental damage such as the leakage of big quantities of sodium hydroxide into the nearby rivers.
To contain this leaked sodium hydroxide, Rusal erected a dam that broke again a few months later, leading to another instance of a series of local ecological accidents since the erection of the factory Diallo b. In May , Rusal admitted to a shortfall in replacement parts and explained this with the allegedly empty pockets of the company since the financial crisis Kadyrov According to most Guinean interview partners, this was part of a well- calculated strategy of Rusal aiming at the replacement of alumina production in Fria with a Ukrainian refinery.
While all its predecessors had promised huge industrial projects that only resulted in the export of bauxite — this concerned for instance Pechiney France in the s, Alcan Canada in the s and 70s, Reynolds US in the s and several junior mining companies like the US company GAC since the s 4 — Rusal tackled the actual destruction of the only existing processing facility Knierzinger The overall aim was nonetheless the same: A scattered production network that minimizes the infrastructural power Mann ; cf.
Agnew of the respective governments and leaves the reins in the hands of the global aluminum oligopoly. The lock out in Fria in April In December , negotiations between the trade unions and Rusal got stalled. During the negotiations, a Russian executive showed two pictures of his home town, before and after the close-down of a factory, and succinctly commented that this was going to happen if the trade unions went on with their demands Knierzinger The negotiations failed and the trade unions threatened to strike. After one more meeting between the conflict parties and the prime minister at the end of December, the unionist took back their strike warning and confirmed that they would not strike until June , while Rusal promised not to take any measures that would further reduce the workers' income during this time.
However, the workers finally went on strike on 4th April , against a ruling of the national labor tribunal, accusing Rusal of failing its promise of December ibid: Rusal used this strike to recall its Russian personnel and to lock the factory. Since then, the employees of Rusal in Fria have neither been licensed nor put on leave, nor have they received regular salaries.
Only in January , worldwide production. If we add up the production capacity of all Chinese state owned aluminum companies, the global market is more concentrated than ever cf. United States Geological Survey It refuses to pay this assistance to around 50 unionists and activists on the grounds that they are "trouble-makers" Knierzinger Sual was owned by another oligarch, Victor Vekselberg, who also ranks among the richest Russians.
Vekselberg left Rusal in March — one month before Friguia closed its doors — because he did not succeed in convincing Deripaska to refinance the heavily indebted company by selling another subsidiary that had been acquired before the sub-prime crisis: Norilsk Nickel, a nickel and palladium producer in Russia. He was supposed to be the richest Russian before the sub-prime crisis and is reported to have lost more than 20 billion Euro during the financial crisis Le Figaro If an illegal strike in Fria would not have provided a reason for the halt of production, Rusal would have been obliged to put the same amount of workers on leave or sell assets.
Due to the withheld wages of the workers and little employment possibilities outside the mine and the factory, Fria has been dependent on food aid since then. A small quantitative study by the author in Fria showed that the daily consumption of rice by the families of petty traders fell by about one third after the retreat of Rusal. Many interviewees stated that they eat once instead of twice a day due to the economic decline since the halt of the factory Knierzinger Fria in Guinea As Fria was the only alumina refinery on the African continent and since the global mining business is in sharp decline, the employees hardly find other jobs based on their expertise.
Furthermore, since the foreign companies had replaced governmental structures in virtually every aspect, the population no longer received free electricity and lost social services such as health insurances, decent water supply, waste disposal etc. The factory only maintained power supply for a few street lamps of the market place, for a mosque and for three nine-storied apartment buildings, whose sanitary system would have broken down without the possibility to pump water.
When I visited the city for the first time in April , these apartment buildings for the workers were in a sanitarily critical condition. The inhabitants complained about rising crime rates, deteriorating health care and a severe restriction of work time and methods due to the cut in power supply Knierzinger The population of Fria reacted to this severe degradation in various ways, in the form of written demands to politicians and company officials, numerous demonstrations, roadblocks, sit-ins in front of the prefectural administration which was renamed "Tahrir place" after its first occupation , judicial procedures and initiatives and projects for a future without mining.
In the three years since the lockout, demonstrations of workers themselves were more and more accompanied by activism of their spouses and children. These more recent initiatives, focusing on education, agriculture and tourism, are mostly led by young educated Friakas who have managed to attract a good part of their funding from the Guinean diaspora from around the world Knierzinger Reactions of the government The attitude of the Guinean government versus Rusal was inconsistent. While the mining minister visited Fria on the eve of the strike in order to virtually beseech the workers not to strike, the President initially supported the strike.
Soros recently called for more or less open military support of the EU to Ukraine Soros This transfer of claims from the former Soviet Union to the private company Rusal remains questionable and underlines the special relationship between the Russian state and Rusal.
This provoked reactions by the Russian foreign minister and prompted Deripaska to visit Guinea together with the Russian mining minister. According to newspaper reports, the President angrily sent Deripaska out of his office, because the CEO of Rusal apparently showed a lack of respect. While some journalists argue that this personal affair was the fundamental trigger for Rusal's retreat from Fria, the company mainly pointed to the "radicalization" of parts of the workforce Knierzinger Fria in Guinea In the light of the potential political consequences of hunger and social unrest in one of the formerly richest towns of Guinea, it remains unclear why the President hesitates until the time of writing to enforce a decision on Rusal — either to come back to Fria or to leave for good.
While the personal and geopolitical constellations are much more complicated than can be portrayed in this article, several instances point to a highly unequal rapport de force between the Guinea government and the Russian company that worsened with the consequences of the global financial crisis.
Already in late June , a few months after its withdrawal, Ibrahima Diallo, an influential activist and former employee of Rusal, who was himself hit hard by the crisis, reported on announcements of Rusal to finally shut down the locked factory. The mining ministry is said to have reacted by threatening to strip Rusal of all its assets in Guinea if this would happen Diallo a. In September , Prime Minister Mohamed Said Fofana succinctly declared that "we can do nothing against Rusal, the owner of the factory.
It is more powerful than the state" Diallo b; translation by JK. Conclusions This brief account of the crisis in Fria for more detailed descriptions see Knierzinger provides an example of how the rationalities of capital- intensive mining influence the daily life of millions of people.
In most extractivist countries of the Global South, economic overexploitation is at least partly coordinated "at home" by rent-oriented political elites cooperating with external actors against the interests of most of their compatriots cf. However, the case of Fria shows that this cooperation can in fact be quite restricted: Rusal neither needed a cooperative government nor a pleased labor aristocracy to have its way.
Its main means of control were the domination of a large part of the aluminum market and its infrastructural power. Its retreat led to the de facto dismissal of a whole city with about , inhabitants and to rapid social decline. This rather grim picture of continuing the path of Western overexploitation in connection with less corporatist and less culturally interested management strategies has also been confirmed for Chinese mining enterprises.
In a study by Lee of a Chinese mining company in Zambia, the firm was portrayed quite similar to Rusal as culturally disinterested, secretive and anti-union. Both in China and in Russia trade unions are weak, wages are far lower than in the West and both countries have seen vast sociopolitical transformations since the end of bipolarity. The self-assured attitude both of Chinese managers in the study of Lee ibid: In both cases managers described these experiences in a virtuously martial manner as painful yet necessary measures to overcome allegedly outdated socialist arrangements.