Virtuality as a key concept in the study of globalisation : aspects of the symbolic transformation of contemporary Africa

TitleVirtuality as a key concept in the study of globalisation : aspects of the symbolic transformation of contemporary Africa
Publication TypeBook
Year of Publication1997
AuthorsW.M.J. van Binsbergen
Series titleWorking paper, ISSN 1386-9515 ; 3
Pagination1 - 99
Date Published1997///
PublisherWOTRO
Place PublishedThe Hague
Publication Languageeng
KeywordsAfrica, anthropology, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, globalization, Malawi, Rural, social change, witchcraft, Zambia
Abstract

The author concentrates on virtuality, which he has come to regard as one of the key concepts for characterizing and understanding the forms of globalization in Africa. Chapters 1 and 2 define virtuality and globalization and provisionally indicate their theoretical relationship. The problematic heritage of an anthropological tradition obsessed with locality provides the analytical framework within which virtuality makes an inspiring topic, as argued in Ch. 3. Ch. 4 offers a transition from theory to empirical case studies by examining the problem of meaning in the African urban environment. Ch. 5 evokes an ethnographic situation (urban puberty rites in present-day Zambia) that illustrates particular forms of virtuality as part of the globalization process. Ch. 6 applies the emerging insights into virtuality and the virtual village to René Devisch's notion of villagization as a major process of societal transformation in the Zairian capital, Kinshasa. Ch. 7 explores the applicability of the same concepts to recent patterns of witchcraft and healing as studied, at the national level in Cameroon and Malawi, by Peter Geschiere and Matthew Schoffeleers respectively. The author's own earlier work on the Kazanga festival as an instance of virtuality in the rural context of western central Zambia is summarized in Ch. 8, after which a conclusion rounds off the argument

Notes

Bibliogr.: p. 81-91. - Met index, noten

IR handle/ Full text URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/1887/9139
Citation Key1316