Working the System

A Political Ethnography of the New Angola

Nonfiction, History, Africa, South Africa, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Anthropology
Cover of the book Working the System by Jon Schubert, Cornell University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Jon Schubert ISBN: 9781501712333
Publisher: Cornell University Press Publication: November 15, 2017
Imprint: Cornell University Press Language: English
Author: Jon Schubert
ISBN: 9781501712333
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Publication: November 15, 2017
Imprint: Cornell University Press
Language: English

Working the System offers key insights into the politics of the everyday in twenty-first-century dominant party and neo-authoritarian regimes in Africa and elsewhere. Detailing the many ways ordinary Angolans fashion their relationships with the system—an emic notion of their current political and socioeconomic environment—Jon Schubert explores what it means and how it feels to be part of the contemporary Angolan polity.

Schubert finds that for many ordinary Angolans, the benefits of the post-conflict "New Angola," flush with oil wealth and in the midst of a construction boom, are few. The majority of the inhabitants of the capital, Luanda, struggle to make ends meet and live on under $2.00 per day. The "New Angola" as promoted by the ruling MPLA, Schubert contends, is an essentially urban, upwardly mobile, and aspirational project, premised on the acceptance of the regime’s political and economic dominance by its citizens. In the first ethnography of Angola to be published since the end of that country’s twenty-seven years of intermittent violent internal conflict in 2002, Schubert traces how Angolans may question and resist the system within an atmosphere of apparent compliance. Working the System will appeal to anthropologists and political scientists, urban sociologists, and scholars of African studies.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Working the System offers key insights into the politics of the everyday in twenty-first-century dominant party and neo-authoritarian regimes in Africa and elsewhere. Detailing the many ways ordinary Angolans fashion their relationships with the system—an emic notion of their current political and socioeconomic environment—Jon Schubert explores what it means and how it feels to be part of the contemporary Angolan polity.

Schubert finds that for many ordinary Angolans, the benefits of the post-conflict "New Angola," flush with oil wealth and in the midst of a construction boom, are few. The majority of the inhabitants of the capital, Luanda, struggle to make ends meet and live on under $2.00 per day. The "New Angola" as promoted by the ruling MPLA, Schubert contends, is an essentially urban, upwardly mobile, and aspirational project, premised on the acceptance of the regime’s political and economic dominance by its citizens. In the first ethnography of Angola to be published since the end of that country’s twenty-seven years of intermittent violent internal conflict in 2002, Schubert traces how Angolans may question and resist the system within an atmosphere of apparent compliance. Working the System will appeal to anthropologists and political scientists, urban sociologists, and scholars of African studies.

More books from Cornell University Press

Cover of the book Moral Aspects of Economic Growth, and Other Essays by Jon Schubert
Cover of the book Humanitarianism in Question by Jon Schubert
Cover of the book Our Unions, Our Selves by Jon Schubert
Cover of the book Ghostworkers and Greens by Jon Schubert
Cover of the book Privatizing Poland by Jon Schubert
Cover of the book The Origins of Right to Work by Jon Schubert
Cover of the book The Transmission of Affect by Jon Schubert
Cover of the book Small Arms by Jon Schubert
Cover of the book The Space That Remains by Jon Schubert
Cover of the book Leaders at War by Jon Schubert
Cover of the book Sex, Love, and Migration by Jon Schubert
Cover of the book Undoing Work, Rethinking Community by Jon Schubert
Cover of the book Empire of Nations by Jon Schubert
Cover of the book Order at the Bazaar by Jon Schubert
Cover of the book The Burdens of Perfection by Jon Schubert
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy