Gouvernance hybride des parkings publics à Lubumbashi : quand la fiscalité informelle supporte la fiscalité formelle

“Hybrid governance” appears today as an emerging research current that focuses on the role of non-state institutions and actors to strengthen state institutions that lack legitimacy and capacity in developing countries. By examining the interactions between private and public actors involved in the governance of public motor parks in Lubumbashi, the second city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this article demonstrates that informal taxation can be a decisive support for the perception of an official parking tax.     

Cold War Currents and Chinese Émigré Intellectuals, 1949–1960

Abstract

Chinese émigré intellectuals who fled from the mainland before 1950 have long been a popular research topic within Chinese academia. While most existing literature tends to attribute the formation of the thought of these émigrés to various domestic factors, this article takes a new angle on the émigrés—putting their thinking in the context of the Cold War. Assessing the impact of anti-Communist Cold War currents on various Chinese émigré intellectuals, this study suggests that not all émigrés succumbed to these currents. Some were convinced by anti-utopian trends in the West and turned against all kinds of socialism. Some remained consistent in their socialist beliefs in the face of the Communist threat. Some perceived an urgent need to revive the Confucian tradition so as to counteract Communist expansion. Cold War currents were influential in the thought of some émigré intellectuals, but such an influence was rather limited.     

Sémiotique et rhétorique de la duplicité dans la peinture de Bernard Baïfang

The Art of Bernard Baifang finds its strength in the subtlety with which this contemporary painter represents abstractions. Using figures of speech, he translates duplicity into images, a moral perversion that has become endemic in many African countries. A semiotic and rhetorical study of the figurations of duplicity in Feymania and La cité rouge reveals that the achievement of these paintings inspired by the experience of daily life in Cameroon is part of a subversive approach based on a cathartic conception of art.     

“Special” Communiqué Issued by the Belgian Marxist Terrorist Group, “Communist Combatant Cells” (CCC)

This section of Studies in Conflict & Terrorism is dedicated to the reprinting of selected, translated terrorist communiqués that provide insights into the mindset, worldview, or operational thinking of a group. In terms of communiqués, this section employs the following typology of terrorist communiqués. There are three types of terrorist communiqués: attack, strategic, and special. Attack communiqués are issued to claim responsibility for an attack, explain the target selected, and provide the political rationale for attacking the target. A strategic communiqué is a longer document that is issued to provide strategic direction or commentary on political events, issues, and developments relevant to the group's cause and constituency. It can be used to explain changes of strategy or reinforce the strategic direction of the group. The special communiqué is similar to the attack communiqué in that it is event-driven but addresses non-attack events like anniversary dates, hunger strikes, elections, deaths of leaders, ceasefires, issuing threats or warnings, annual progress reports, issuing apologies, and so on. All three communiqués are issued publicly and intended to influence various audiences.     

Établissements d’enseignement et de santé confessionnels,espace public et agency à Ouagadougou (1987–2010)

Abstract

In response to the significant urbanisation and the demographic expansion of Ouagadougou, the Catholic Church and Islamic associations are diversifying their operations, which were already significant in terms of health and education at the end of the 1980s. This social engagement is at the heart of humanitarian, proselytising, socio-economic and political challenges and influences the position of these actors in the public space. This article intends to contribute to consideration of the relations between these religious actors and the State in Burkina Faso with the aim of analysing the sectors of secondary teaching and health in Ouagadougou. It will be demonstrated that the operations of these actors (Muslim and Catholic) made their legitimacy evolve differently in the public space from 1987 to 2010. The Catholic actors have had a greater influence than the Muslims on the decisions of the State. Subsequent to the challenges and the political context, the capacity of agency (capacity to act) of the actors of the two denominations has modified.     

A Lipskian analysis of child protection failures from Victoria Climbié to "Baby P": a street-level re-evaluation of joined-up governance

This paper explores the issue of joined-up governance by considering child protection failures, firstly, the case of Victoria Climbié who was killed by her guardians despite being known as an at risk child by various public agencies. The seeming inability of the child protection system to prevent Victoria Climbié's death resulted in a public inquiry under the chairmanship of Lord Laming. The Laming report of 2003 looked, in part, to the lack of joined-up working between agencies to explain this failure to intervene and made a number of recommendations to improve joined-up governance. Using evidence from detailed testimonies given by key personnel during the Laming Inquiry, the argument of this paper is that we cannot focus exclusively on formal structures or decision-making processes but must also consider the normal, daily and informal routines of professional workers. These very same routines may inadvertently culminate in the sort of systemic failures that lead to child protection tragedies. Analysis of the micro-world inhabited by professional workers would benefit most, it is argued here, from the policy-based concept of street-level bureaucracy developed by Michael Lipsky some 30 years ago. The latter half of the paper considers child protection failures that emerged after the Laming-inspired reforms. In particular, the case of ‘Baby P’ highlights, once again, how the working practices of street-level professionals, rather than a lack of joined-up systems, may possibly complement an analysis of, and help us to explain, failures in the child protection system. A Lipskian analysis generally offers, although there are some caveats, only pessimistic conclusions about the prospects of governing authorities being able to avoid future child protection disasters. These conclusions are not wholeheartedly accepted. There exists a glimmer of optimism because street-level bureaucrats still remain accountable, but not necessarily in terms of top-down relations of authority rather, in terms of interpersonal forms of accountability – accountability to professionals and citizen consumers of services.     

“La bibliothèque coloniale”, la propriété intellectuelle et la romance du développement en Afrique

One asks oneself vigorously about the conditions of the construction of knowledge relative to the African continent as well as to its way of thinking. The influence of V.Y. Mudimbe in this regard is immense. The major categories of anthropology are examined, even called into question, and most notably the ethnic groups. As pertinent as they may be, these analyses return to the library and to the system of representation that the continent invents and raise it to a paradigm of difference par excellence. It is important, beyond the scholarly discourse, to take a look at the relationship of ordinary people with libraries. Broadcasters, for example, comment candidly on the work of one artist-musician or another. Appropriation implies the related right: “droit d'auteur(e)”, copyright or “Urheberrecht”. Anyone who fails to comply becomes a pirate. What, therefore, is the meaning of to modernise the author, the work, the copyright or the pirate not in language inherited from Western law but in that of the citizen or the average villager?     

“Les catholiques sont l’élite!”: représentations de l’espace politique par une minorité religieuse au Burkina Faso

Abstract

The Catholic Church occupies a privileged position in the religious arena in Burkina Faso. Having invested very early in the public arena of the country, it constitutes a vital actor in the socio-political landscape of the country as attested to by its involvement in the domains of education and health and its positioning as mediator in times of crisis. Based on a field survey conducted among members of the Catholic community (members of the clergy, religious and lay), this article studies the manner in which Catholics in Burkina Faso portray themselves as a religious community in the country’s political arena. It reveals that in Burkina Faso the Catholics portray themselves as a dominant religious minority in terms of politics due to their disproportionate engagement in the apparatus of the state. The article also shows that the Catholics in Burkina Faso see their dominant position as under threat, on the one hand, from competition by the Protestants and, on the other, by the rise of Islamism.     

L’érosion de l’autorité musulmane à Ouagadougou: le discours de militants de l’Association des Elèves et Etudiants Musulmans au Burkina

Abstract

Whilst religious radicalism is at the heart of media and scientific preoccupations, this study shows that, in Burkina Faso, Muslim authority has experienced a steady regression in the urban environment of Ouagadougou. On the basis of interviews conducted with young Muslims at the University of Ouagadougou, the article proposes a reflection on the factors that are causing such an erosion of authority. If the spiritual dimension of this authority is not being called into question, the temporal dimension is undergoing a process of de-legitimisation, which is increasing in line with the interpenetration of the religious and political spheres as well as the discrediting of the semi-authoritarian regime of Blaise Compaoré. In addition to highlighting the fragmentation of the sectors of authority, the study allows for better identification of the position of youths (“cadets sociaux”) in the religious field.     

La "frontière africaine" revisitée: "ethnogenèse" dans les Grassfields de l'est(le cas de la chefferie bamiléké de Batié)

Cet article tente de dater la genèse et de suivre l'évolution dans le temps d'une chefferie Bamiléké (ouest-Cameroun) en l'inscrivant dans ses contexte régional et historique, couvrant la période précoloniale (fin du 17ième siècle approximativement à fin du 19ième siècle). Pour ce faire nous avons recours à la tradition orale telle que celle-ci a été définie par Jan Vansina (1985), que nous complétons par d'autres sources confirmant ou infirmant ces traditions. Nous essayons de mettre à l'épreuve le paradigme de la "frontière africaine" introduit par Igor Kopytoff (1987) et montrons en quoi notre étude de cas conforte certaines de ses hypothèses et en réfute d'autres. L'article porte l'accent sur une contextualisation historique et culturelle des sources utilisées. S'appuyant sur les travaux de certains historiens de l'Afrique centrale (MacGaffey, Miller, Vansina), il conclu par des remarques concernant la conceptualisation du temps et de l'agencéité, l'historicité et la culture des sociétés Grassfields précoloniales.