Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #373877 in Books
• Published on: 1999-11-24
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 343 pages

Synopsis
Once lauded as the wave of the African future, Zambia's economic boom in the 1960s and early 1970s was fueled by the export of copper and other primary materials. Since the mid-1970s, however, the urban economy has rapidly deteriorated, leaving workers scrambling to get by. "Expectations of Modernity" explores the social and cultural responses to this prolonged period of sharp economic decline. Focusing on the experiences of mineworkers in the Copperbelt region, James Ferguson traces the failure of standard narratives of urbanization and social change to make sense of the Copperbelt's recent history. He instead develops alternative analytic tools appropriate for an "ethnography of decline."Ferguson shows how the Zambian copper workers understand their own experience of social, cultural, and economic "advance" and "decline." Ferguson's ethnographic study transports us into their lives - the dynamics of their relations with family and friends, as well as copper companies and government agencies.

Theoretically sophisticated and vividly written, "Expectations of Modernity" will appeal not only to those interested in Africa today, but to anyone contemplating the illusory successes of today's globalizing economy.

Customer Reviews

An Insightful and sensitive look at modern life in Zambia
An accusation consistently leveled at post-modern theory is that it's too obscure. All too frequently, the defenders of postmodernism are unclear about what they're trying to say and seem to use inpenetrable jargon to state their case.

Not so in this book. Using his extensive fieldwork in Zambian copper mining towns, James Ferguson conscientiously illustrates the breakdown of the idea of social progress in Zambia since the decline of the copper industry. He shows how the idea of Zambia's progress towards a modern, industrial nation, embodied in the copper mining industry, was merely an imposition of European styles of life on Zambia which benefited only the European powers needing cheap copper.

He argues further that since the fall in the price of copper in the 70s wrecked Zambia's economy, a number of ex-miners and other workers have attempted to "go back" to their tribal roots but have found themselves unable to re-integrate in societies they no longer understand. Stuck in an era in which the modernist project has demonstrably failed, yet changed by it in such a way that returning to their previous cultural practices is not a real option, today's Zambian urbanites might truely be called "post-modern".

Always deeply sensitive to the plight of ordinary Zambians whose livelihoods depend on the copper industry, James' Fergusons book is a "must-read" for anyone interested in contemporary culture theory, in modern day Africa, the copper industry, anthropology or just in people.