Panel 20: States, public bureaucracies and civil servants:
Organisational fields and actors' practices (Thomas Bierschenk)
Panel Organisers: Thomas Bierschenk,
Giorgio Blundo, Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan, Mahaman Tidjani Alou
This panel will assemble studies which analyse the 'real' workings of states and
public services, and the ‘doing of the state’ by
public servants, at both the central and local levels, from an institutional,
actor or historical perspective, or their combination. Comparative studies
within Africa as well with non-African situations are particularly welcome, as
well as studies that bring perspectives from the sociology of organisations and
bureaucracy to bear on African situations.
Accepted Abstracts
The people, the power and the public service:
Political identification during Guinea's general strike
The Turn Around Strategy from below: bureaucratic
reform among South African Home Affairs migration officials in Johannesburg
'Get to the bridge and I will help you to cross':
merit, personal connections and money as routes to success in Nigerian
higher education
Civil society or civil servants? The construction of
the public space in Guinea-Bissau
Paperwork, Rights and the Contradictions of
Accountability in a South African Hospital
The state idea in practice: Current debates in
Malawi and Sierra Leone
The dynamics of power in the Cameroon's bureacratie:
a case study of the Ministry for basic Education bureaucratie
Building state capacities? The case of the PRSP Unit
in Mali
The Making of an African Police Force in Togo
(1933-1963)
THE EYE OF THE STATE: TAX OFFICIALS AND THE
PRODUCTION OF AUTHORITY OVER BUSINESS ACTIVITIES IN NORTHERN CAMEROON
Prison administration in Senegal and Mauritania
Civil Servants in Cape Vert: social and political
profile of top officials.
Carrieres administratives et production de l'Etat au
Gabon : faire carriere au service de l'Etat.
Creative Bureaucracy: Balancing power and
negotiating interests in resource management in northern Ghana
