BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Sabre//Sabre VObject 4.5.7//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Zurich X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/Zurich TZURL:http://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/Zurich BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:19810329T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:19961027T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:news3810@zasb.unibas.ch DTSTAMP;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20241028T091756 DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20231211T161500 SUMMARY:Till Förster: "Nafoun – there is no fire" DESCRIPTION:Till Förster\, Professor Emeritus\, former Chair of Anthropolo gy at the University of Basel\, will present a book project on politics in the West African savannah. The online presentation is followed by a discu ssion with the audience.\\r\\nBook abstract \\r\\nWhat can social theory l earn from politics in a small town in the West African savannah? Many beli eve there is not much of interest in such remote places ­– except that Western interventions and development aid may terribly fail\, and that it would be better to leave such backward places to their own resources. This book argues otherwise. It is about learning from a remote place\, a small town and a coalition of villages that are scattered over the grasslands o f the West African savannah. Western understandings of politics do not wor k in this area where the state is but a shallow shadow of what it claims t o be. Nevertheless\, since the wars of Samory Touré at the end of the 19t h century\, the town and its environment has been a non-violent social spa ce where conflicts of interest and disputes were settled by other means – as Nafoun\, the name of the town already showed: “There is no fire ”. How that was done is the subject of the book. It first asks general q uestions about politics and how Western definitions of politics can give w ay to other understandings and concepts that can\, on the one side\, impro ve the analysis of other forms of political practice\, and on the other si de\, serve as a conceptual basis for general comparisons. X-ALT-DESC:

Till Förster\, Professor Emeritus\, former Chair of Anthropo logy at the University of Basel\, will present a book project on politics in the West African savannah. The online presentation is followed by a dis cussion with the audience.

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Book abs tract
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What can social the ory learn from politics in a small town in the West African savannah? Many believe there is not much of interest in such remote places ­\;– exc ept that Western interventions and development aid may terribly fail\, and that it would be better to leave such backward places to their own resour ces. This book argues otherwise. It is about learning from a remote place\ , a small town and a coalition of villages that are scattered over the gra sslands of the West African savannah. Western understandings of politics d o not work in this area where the state is but a shallow shadow of what it claims to be. Nevertheless\, since the wars of Samory Touré at the end o f the 19th century\, the town and its environment has been a no n-violent social space where conflicts of interest and disputes were settl ed by other means – as Nafoun\, the name of the town already showed: “ There is no fire”. How that was done is the subject of the book. It firs t asks general questions about politics and how Western definitions of pol itics can give way to other understandings and concepts that can\, on the one side\, improve the analysis of other forms of political practice\, and on the other side\, serve as a conceptual basis for general comparisons.< /em>

DTEND;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20231211T174500 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR