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Even if data analysis in Africa has allegedly allowed analysts to expand the boundaries of inquiry, social science research in the continent has been hindered by several problems. Some of these problems could be viewed as subcategories of the idols that Francis Bacon had identified. We show in the present article that bad data lead to bad analyses, which in turn lead to misleading interpretations and misleading interpretations lead to a type of knowledge that is distinctively different from real and objective knowledge. We conclude by recommending that to avoid most, if not all, of the research problems in Africa, social science researchers should realize that social phenomena are embedded in an infinite web of relations from which only true meaning can emerge. It follows that, to gain a proper appreciation of such network of relations, social phenomena must be approached at various levels from different perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of China as a development actor across the global South has raised significant questions regarding the extent to which the country presents new development opportunities to its compatriots in the South. My aim is to reflect on and parse out the experiences and policies that have shaped China’s development to assess how it can inform the field of development studies. I argue that we need to critically engage in China’s development process, as China’s own development has led to the emergence of many more problems than solutions, ranging from increasing inequality to exclusionary development practices pertaining to ethnic minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study explores the spread of Jatropha in Kenya and some implications of its trajectory. Proponents of biodiesel in Kenya have adopted a near-singular focus on Jatropha but attach it to a wide variety of goals, including climate change mitigation, poverty reduction, and clean development. The priorities of actors who promote the crop often differ from those of smallholder farmers who grow it. The persistence of multiple discourses of development linked to Jatropha creates tensions between competing perspectives, manifested through allegations of exclusion and shady business, but it also allows actors to deploy strategic flexibility by invoking Jatropha to pursue different ends. A case study of an internationally funded project in Mpeketoni, Coast Province highlights disconnects between the initial objectives of donors, coordinators, and farmers and explores the project's potential to produce outcomes that are satisfactory to all three. The paper contributes to wider debates about biofuels and discourses of development: Jatropha shares many features with past agricultural development interventions, but as a biofuel it exhibits additional layers of contested meaning because of the politics of energy and the environment that are involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides a critical discussion of the literature on 'patrimonialism' and 'neopatrimonialism' in Development Studies in general and African Studies in particular. Based on Max Weber's concept of patrimonialism and legal-rational bureaucracy the authors present their own definition of 'neopatrimonialism'. Three key conceptual questions are addressed. These are related to the operationalisation of the concept in empirical research: (1) how can neopatrimonialism be delimited vis-à-vis the concepts 'clientelism' and 'patronage'?; (2) how can neopatrimonialism be 'measured'?; and (3) how does neopatrimonialism relate to classical typologies of political regimes? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five elements inhibiting development in weak African states are singled out: patron-client networks; geographical conditions; infrastructural circumstances; ineffective institutions; and cultural characteristics. It is pointed out that the belief in the possibility of development everywhere is a piece of ideology, not a fact. Furthermore, there are serious limitations as to what outsiders can do. The emergence of state failure has further diminished prospects for development. Even if there are also positive elements in some places the prospect of development for all is not bright. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we aim to rethink the political geography of African development at the beginning of the 21st century. Central to our thesis are two intertwining legacies, paralleling Edward Said’s Orientalism. The first is the construction of Africa in the western imagination and the second is an enduring trusteeship towards the continent. The core movement we seek to critique and move beyond is the complicity between racialised knowledges about Africa and a series of political interventions that seek to ‘help’ Africans to develop. The paper begins by examining the legacy of colonialism in the policies towards and representations of Africa. Although selective and schematic we argue that what unites these power–knowledge constructions is a sense of trusteeship towards the continent. The next step is to look at ways of decolonising our knowledges as a means to effect more appropriate political engagement with Africa. For this we touch on a range of theoretical positions, but look most closely at the corpus of post-colonial theory for ways of doing this. While not uncritical of post-colonialism we find it potentially useful for destabilising western authority and in addressing questions of popular agency and cultural constructions of exclusion. From here we attempt a reformulation which addresses the role of the state, the politics of place and space, and the ways in which ‘we’––professional geographers––might go about our work. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]