Africa's Development Impasse: Rethinking the Political Economy of Transformation

By Stefan Andreasson

Book Overview

Orthodox strategies for socio-economic development have failed spectacularly in Southern Africa. Neither the developmental state nor neoliberal reform seems able to provide a solution to Africa's problems. In Africa's Development Impasse, Stefan Andreasson analyses this failure and explores the potential for post-development alternatives. Examining the post-independence trajectories of Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa, the book shows three different examples of this failure to overcome a debilitating colonial legacy. Andreasson then argues that it is now time to resuscitate post-development theory's challenge to conventional development. In doing this, he claims, we face the enormous challenge of translating post-development into actual politics for a socially and politically sustainable future and using it as a dialogue about what the aims and aspirations of post-colonial societies might become. This important fusion of theory with empirical case studies will be essential reading for students of development politics and Africa.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1842779729
• ISBN13: 9781842779729
• Release Date: February 2010
• Publisher: Zed Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.4"