Prosperity in crisis and the longue durée in Africa

ABSTRACT

Understanding the evolution and tenacity of particular ways of envisaging economic growth and development for Africa requires a form of analytical history that examines how conceptual structures function over the longue durée. Such an approach is more than simply empirical analysis through time or a set of abstractions based on the self-understandings of historical agents. It involves the development of a hypothetical analytic structure which through its own forms of transformation eventually comes to play a role in shaping the lived world of participants, including researchers, policymakers and ordinary citizens. This article uses research from Kenya and Zambia to demonstrate how a long-running – but temporally and spatially variable – focus on agricultural productivity has shaped the character of rural life in Africa, and why it has consistently failed to deliver enlarged forms of prosperity based on quality of life and ecological well-being.

KEYWORDS:

• longue durée
• Kenya
• Zambia
• agricultural productivity
• rural

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Since, 2016, the Zambian economy has slowed markedly again with exposure to reduced copper prices (World Bank 2017).

2 In the rural areas, ownership is still differentiated by gender, and for women without a handset, borrowing from friends or family is the most common way to gain access to a phone (Murphy and Priebe 2011; Oduor et al. 2014, 2711).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Henrietta L. Moore

Professor Henrietta L. Moore is Founder and Director of the Institute for Global Prosperity at University College London, where she is also Chair of Culture, Philosophy and Design. Email: [email protected]