African Futures in the Making Detlef Muller-Mahn, Michael Bollig.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Müller-Mahn, Hans-Detlef, editor.

Bollig, Michael, editor.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Woodbridge, Suffolk Boydell and Brewer, [2026]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

What lies ahead for rural Africa, given a rapidly increasing population, climate change, poverty, inequality and projections of an increasing vulnerability to natural hazards and food shortages? Bringing together scholars in ecology, agriculture, economics, human geography and cultural anthropology, from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Germany, The Netherlands and the UK, this book focusses on social-ecological transformation and future-making in rural Africa, especially in areas of rapid land-use change following the establishment of development corridors, conservation areas, and large-scale infrastructure projects. In Africa, discussions on the way forward are particularly conflict-ridden because people do not agree about desirable goals, because the gap between winners and losers seems to be bigger than elsewhere, and because the struggle for desirable futures is embedded in a problematic history of foreign domination and exploitation. Focussing on eastern and southern Africa, topics examined range from the history of conservation initiatives and wildlife protection to visions of green development, from the gender implications of extreme climate events on pastoral economies to the use of information and communication technologies on farms and mobile money in geographically remote territories, from large-scale energy infrastructure projects and growth corridors to local ways of managing risk. The volume opens with reflections on African utopic registers of the future and conceptual decolonization in African futurity. Published in association with the Collaborative Research Centre FUTURE RURAL AFRICA, funded by the German Research Council (DFG).

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Introduction: Future-Making and Social-Ecological Transformation in Rural Africa / Detlef Muller-Mahn, Michael Bollig

Part 1: Bringing Future-Making into Perspective African Perspectives and the Decolonial Turn

1 Black/African Imaginations of the Future / Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni

2 Conceptual Decolonization in African Universities: An Imperative for Shaping African Futures / Martin Ajei

Part Two: Technologies, Imaginaries, and Practices of Future-Making in Rural Africa

3 In technology we trust: Digital Visions and their Implications for Agricultural Futures in Eastern Africa / Astrid Matejcek, Rupert Neuhofer, Julian Rochlitz, Julia Verne

4 Green Futures and National Planning: Rhetoric and Reality in Rural East Africa / Eric M. Kioko, Detlef Muller-Mahn, Maxmillian J. Chuhila

5 The Growth-Corridor Vision and its Realities Regional Economic Impacts in Namibia and Tanzania / Javier Revilla Diez, Peter Dannenberg, Carolin Hulke, Linus Kalvelage, Gideon Tups, Richard Mbunda

6 The Making of an Energy Resource Periphery? Scalar Politics, Frontier Dynamics, and Future-Making in Northern Kenya / Clemens Greiner, Britta Klagge, Kennedy Mkutu, Frankline Ndi

7 Africa, The Conservation Continent? Future-Making and the Globalization of Wildlife Protection / Hauke-Peter Vehrs, Michael Bollig

Part Three: For Prayer, Profit, and Persistence Aspirations and Hope in the Future-Making in Rural Africa

8 Gendered African Futures and Extreme Climate Events in Turkana, Kenya / Maggie Opondo, Gilbert Ouma, Anne Oketch, Dennis Ongech

9 Reimagining Africas Rural Futures in the Age of Mobile Money / Prince K. Guma

10 Joining the church as a Form of Future-making? Il Chamus Christians Futural Orientations in Baringo County, Northern Kenya / Dorothea Schulz, Uros Kovac

11 The Politics of Anticipation in East Africas Rangelands / Ian Scoones, Tahira Shariff Mohamed, Masresha Taye

Epilogue: African Futures and the Way Forward / Detlef Muller-Mahn, Michael Bollig

Index

Future Rural Africa - Previously published titles

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed January 20 2026)

ISBN:

1-84701-485-2

9781847014856