Call for Papers: African Elites in the Era of Globalisation, 06/05

African Elites in the Era of Globalisation
Call for papers for a panel at the AEGIS First European Conference of African Studies,

London, 29 June to 3 July 2005

Convenors: Thomas Bierschenk (Mainz), Andreas Eckert (Hamburg), Carola
Lentz (Mainz)

This panel will discuss recent empirical studies of elites in
contemporary Africa. By elites we refer to those occupying leadership positions in various spheres ñ be these political, economic, cultural ñ from which they decisively and regularly participate in central decision-making processes. Papers should focus on the following topics: socio-cultural pre-requisites for the attainment of elite status (access to various forms of capital in the Bourdieuean sense), lifestyle and consumption patterns, forms of organization and communication
(networks), constitution of elite identity and the role of age and gender. Of interest are both quantitative studies and comparative analyses (synchronic, covering several countries, or diachronic) as well as qualitative case studies (e.g. biographical studies).

The papers should discuss these issues, among others:

* Have contemporary African elites, like the rest of African
society, become more differentiated over the past decades and have elite carreers thereby become more diverse and less predictable than they were in the 1960s (when research on African elites first climaxed)?
* Are the resources on which elite status rests (education, access to the international system, availability of ìhistoryî and ìtraditionî, etc.) the same as they were in the years immediately following independence? How have these resources and their
relative importance changed? Today, what is the importance of
being able to combine the various forms of capital (ìstraddlingì)? * Is there empirical evidence for a reification of class structures (closure of elites)?

Abstracts of proposed papers should be sent by October 1, 2004. Selected paper givers will be contacted by the convenors by November 1, 2004. Full papers should be sent by May 15, 2005.

Address all correspondence to:

Thomas Bierschenk
Institut f$FCr Ethnologie und Afrikastudien
Johannes Gutenberg-Universit$E4t
D-55099 Mainz, Germany.
Email: biersche@mail.uni-mainz.de
Fax. +49-(0)6131-392.3730

Page Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar, Ph.D.