States at Work: Dynamics of African Bureaucracies (Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies, 12)

__States at Work__ explores the mundane practices of state-making in Africa by focussing on the daily functioning of public services and the practices of civil servants. Studying the dynamics of African bureaucracies : an introduction to states at work -- Thomas Bierschenk and Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan Ethnographies of public services in Africa : an emerging research paradigm -- Thomas Bierschenk and Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan Seeing like a state agent : the ethnography of reform in Senegal's forestry services -- Giorgio Blundo Factionalism and staff success in a Nigerian university : a departmental case study -- Chris Willott Working in neopatrimonial settings : public sector staff perceptions in Tanzania and Uganda -- Ole Therkildsen "We make do and keep going!" Inventive practices and ordered informality in the functioning of the district courts in Niamey snd Zinder (Niger) -- Oumarou Hamani "I take an oath to the state, not the government" : career trajectories and professional ethics of Ghanaian public servants -- Carola Lentz "We must run while others walk" : African civil servants, state ideologies and bureaucratic practices in Tanzania, from the 1950s to the 1970s -- Andreas Eckert Sedimentation, fragmentation and normative double-binds in (West) African public services -- Thomas Bierschenk The politics of reform: a case study of bureaucracy at the ministry of basic education in Cameroon -- Helene Charton Building state capacities? The case of the poverty reduction unit in Mali -- Isaline Bergamaschi A breeding ground for revenue reliability? Cameroonian veterinary agents and tax officials in the face of reform -- Jose-Maria Munoz Old-school bureaucrats and technocrats in Malawi : civil service reform in practice -- Gerhard Anders Teachers unions and the selective appropriation of public service reforms in Benin -- Azizou Chabi Imorou The state that works : a 'pockets of effectiveness' perspective on Nigeria and beyond -- Michael Roll The delivery state in Africa : interface bureaucrats, professional cultures and the bureaucratic mode of governance -- Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan.

States at Work explores the mundane practices of state-making in Africa by focussing on the daily functioning of public services and the practices of civil servants. Adopting mainly an ethnographic approach as a basis for theorizing, the authors deal with topics including: bureaucratic cultures and practical norms, operational routines in offices, career patterns and modes of appointment; how bureaucrats themselves perceive and deliver goods and services and interact with service users; the accumulation of public administration reforms and how the different bureaucratic corps react to the 'good governance' discourse and new public management policies; the consequences of these reforms for the daily working of state bureaucracies and for the civil servants' identities and modes of accountability; and the space that exists for bottom-up micro-reforms that build on local innovations or informal arrangements.