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Dear All, The African Studies Association (ASA) is organising a conference entitled “African at a Crossroads”, November 19-22, 2009 at New Orleans Marriott Hotel, New Orleans, LA. USA A colleague of mine (Aurelien Mauxion from Northwestern University) and I would like to organise a panel on 'Democratization at the political margins in Africa'(see below). Could you please circulate this email to potentially interested researchers and PhD students working on: marginalised groups, democratisation, local elections and local governance, dependence and clientelism, ethnicity, gender relations, citizenship, and the understandings and practices of local democracy. Thank you in advance Panel: Democratization at the political margins in Africa The papers of this panel explore the social and political dynamics of marginalized groups such as slave descendants, women, nomads, and youth in the process of administrative decentralization and democratization in Africa. Since the late 1990s many African states have engaged in these twin processes. Central governments have delegated much of their prerogatives and responsibilities to locally elected councils, thereby anchoring multi-party politics and free elections at the local level. The contributors to this panel ask: how do voting practices and participation to local councils redefine the social and political role of historically marginalized social groups? How does it transform their relationship with those who previously controlled power? To what extent does their political participation alter the management of public affairs in local communities? By addressing these questions the papers raise broader issues about socioeconomic dependence and clientelism, ethnicity, gender relations, citizenship, and the understandings and practices of local democracy. Based on recent empirical fieldwork, this panel clarifies how these processes unfold in various socioeconomic and political contexts and fosters an empirically documented comparative approach to administrative decentralization and democratization in Africa. For more information please contact Aurélien Mauxion <aurelienmauxion2011@u.northwestern.edu> or Eric Hahonou <komlavi@ruc.dk> -- Eric Komlavi HAHONOU, PhD. Economist & Social anthropologist Postdoc fellow at Roskilde University Department of Society & Globalisation Building 23.2-039 Postbox 260, DK-4000 Roskilde, DENMARK Phone: +45 46 74 32 70 48 74 90 90 Research member of LASDEL BP 12901 Niamey - NIGER BP 1383 Parakou - BENIN www.lasdel.net
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