The state must be our master of fire : how peasants craft sustainable development in Senegal / Dennis C. Galvan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Galvan, Dennis Charles.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Land tenure--Senegal--Sine-Saloum--History.

Land tenure.

Serer (African people)--Government relations.

Serer (African people).

Acculturation--Senegal--Case studies.

Acculturation.

History.

Sine-Saloum (Senegal)--Social conditions.

Sine-Saloum (Senegal).

Sine-Saloum (Senegal)--Economic conditions.

Senegal.

Senegal--Sine-Saloum.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

xiv, 317 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, [2004]

Summary:

Over several centuries, the Serer of the Siin region of Senegal developed a complex system of land tenure that resulted in a stable rural society, productive agriculture, and a well-managed ecosystem. Dennis Galvan's book tells the story of what happened when French colonial rulers, and later the government of the newly independent Senegal, imposed new systems of land tenure and cultivation on the Serer of Siin. Galvan's book is a painstaking and skillful autopsy of ruinous Western-style "rational" economic development policy forced upon a fragile self-sustaining society. It is also a disquieting demonstration of the futility of such an approach and an attempt to articulate a better, more sensitive, and ultimately more productive model for change -- a model Galvan calls "institutional syncretism."

Contents:

Buying rope is a young man's job

The Serer of Siin

Tradition in the Siin

Land pawning as a response to the standardization of tenure

Two romanticizations

The king has come : now everything is ruined

Culturally sustainable development.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-299) and index.

ISBN:

0520227786

0520235916

OCLC:

52312465

Online:

Publisher description