Ethiopia in Theory: Revolution and Knowledge Production, 1964-2016 (Historical Materialism Book)

"Between the years 1964 and 1974, Ethiopian post-secondary students studying at home, in Europe, and in North America produced a number of journals. In these they explored the relationship between social theory and social change within the project of building a socialist Ethiopia. Ethiopia in Theory examines the literature of this student movement, together with the movement's afterlife in Ethiopian politics and society, in order to ask: what does it mean to write today about the appropriation and indigenisation of Marxist and mainstream social science ideas in an Ethiopian and African context; and, importantly, what does the archive of revolutionary thought in Africa teach us about the practice of critical theory more generally?"-- Provided by publisher ‎Contents ‎Foreword ‎Acknowledgements ‎Abbreviations ‎Note on Citations ‎Introduction ‎1. Revolutionary Ethiopia ‎2. Background to the Project ‎3. Fieldwork ‎4. Structure of the Book ‎Part 1. Knowledge Production and Social Change in Ethiopia ‎Chapter 1. The Children of the Revolution: Toward an Alternative Method ‎1. I Don’t Have Tizita ‎Chapter 2. Social Science Is a Battlefield: Rethinking the Historiography of the Ethiopian Revolution ‎1. Early Histories of the Revolution and the International Left ‎2. Historiography of the Liberated Zones ‎3. Historical Contiguity ‎4. The Student Movement Grows Up ‎Chapter 3. Challenge: Social Science in the Literature of the Ethiopian Student Movement ‎1. Challenge 1965–9: The Moment of Departure ‎2. Our Collective Backwardness ‎3. The Method of the Idea ‎4. The Making of a Programme ‎5. The Moment of Manoeuvre: Debates on the National Question ‎6. Challenge in the World ‎7. Conclusion ‎Chapter 4. When Social Science Concepts Become Neutral Arbiters of Social Conflict: Rethinking the 2005 Elections in Ethiopia ‎1. The 2005 Federal Elections ‎2. Discussion ‎Chapter 5. Passive Revolution: Living in the Aftermath of the 2005 Elections ‎Part 2. Theory as Memoir ‎Chapter 6. The Problem of the Social Sciences in Africa ‎1. The Problem of the Social Sciences in Africa ‎2. Rethinking Transitions to Capitalism ‎3. Knowledge Production in Africa ‎4. Anthropological Nature and the Possibility of Critique ‎5. Critical-Practical Thought ‎6. The Human as Subject and Object ‎7. A Theory of Human Development ‎8. Coda ‎Bibliography ‎Index Between the years 1964 and 1974, Ethiopian post-secondary students studying at home, in Europe, and in North America produced a number of journals where they explored the relationship between social theory and social change within the project of building a socialist Ethiopia. Ethiopia in Theory examines the literature of this student movement, together with the movement’s afterlife in Ethiopian politics and society in order to ask: what does it mean to write today about the appropriation and indigenization of Marxist and mainstream social science ideas in an Ethiopian and African context; and, importantly, what does the archive of revolutionary thought in Africa teach us about the practice of critical theory more generally. Ethiopia in Theory examines the literature of the Ethiopian student movement of the 1960s in tandem with the movement's afterlife, to reflect on the connection between theory and practice in the context of dramatic social change.