FKO 560:  Local Action in Africa in the Context of Global Influences

• Subject Area: Humanities ; Social and Behavioural Sciences
• Term: from 2000 to 2007
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5484218

The aim of the programme is to examine local action in the context of global influences. "Local" is understood as a constantly changing social and spatial context. The programme thus focuses not only on present situations, but compares them also with the past. In distinction to the usual perspective in globalization paradigms, we emphasize the historical dimension of globalization processes understanding them as global tendencies. Furthermore, we also do research on the processes of indirect globalization, that is, processes by which globalization does not directly affect the local, but rather changes the relationships between local unities.Field research in Africa is basic to the programme. By way of concrete examples, the various departmental projects will demonstrate how social interactions take on new dimensions and meanings and are transformed because of changing living conditions in African rural and urban communities as a result of globalization.The programme consists at the moment of fourteen departmental projects, which address different aspects of the larger theme. The projects have been grouped into three sub-thematic units. These are in short: "Local Vitality", "Cultural Syncretisation, and "Global Reference Systems". Presently there are 43 researchers in the programme (22 who are financed by the University and 21 by the DFG). The programme succeeds the collaborative research centre 214 "Identity in Africa" (1984-1997) and the Graduiertenkolleg "Intercultural Relations in Africa" (1990-1999), and thus is the third research programme supported by the DFG. It co-operates with the Institute for African Studies (IAS), which has led and co-ordinated the African Studies research and teaching programmes existing since the founding of the University of Bayreuth. In addition, the programme is linked to the University¿s newly established Bachelor¿s and Master¿s degree programmes in Africa-related studies.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Cultural Studies Research Centres

Completed projects

• A01 - Vitality - Convergence - Differentiation: On Global Languages in Africa and their Adaption to Local Contact Languages in the Context of Historical and Contemporary Migration (Project Heads Owens, Jonathan ;  von Roncador, Manfred ;  Sokol, Monika )
• A02 - Ethnotourismus: Europäer bei Berbern und Tuareg (Project Heads Popp, Herbert ;  Spittler, Gerd )
• A4 - Lokaler Konsum im globalen Kontext: Konsum und Güterbeschaffung in drei westafrikanischen Gesellschaften (Project Heads Hahn, Hans Peter ;  Spittler, Gerd )
• A6 - Die Interaktion zwischen lokalen Akteuren und Entwicklungsexperten in Mali und Burkina Faso (Project Head Diawara, Mamadou )
• A7 - Die kulturelle Integration der Flüchtlinge/Immigranten aus dem Sudan und aus Ägypten in ihre Gastgebervölker in Deutschland und in den USA (Project Head Ibrahim, Fouad N. )
• A08 - Traders and Managers in Africa - Actors and Agency in global/local Business Arenas (Project Heads Hahn, Hans Peter ;  Müller-Mahn, Detlef ;  Remer, Andreas )
• B01 - Comparing African Curches. Localisation of Global Pentecostal Christianity in Nigeria and South Africa (Project Heads Berner, Ulrich ;  Bochinger, Christoph )
• B3 - Local and Global Aspects of Taarab: A Popular Music Entertainment in East Africa (An Examination of Visual Culture and Text) (Project Head Khamis, Said A.M. )
• B4 - Imagination, ästhetische Praxis und globale Kunstwelt (Project Head Förster, Till )
• B5 - Lokales Handeln im globalen Kontext: Bodenrecht im urbanen und peri-uranen Raum in Benin, Ghana und Tansania (Project Head Spellenberg, Ulrich )
• B06 - Language, rituals and cognitive structures. Localizing global Christianity in Nigeria (Project Heads Berner, Ulrich ;  Ibriszimow, Dymitr )
• B07 - Artworlds in Interaction - Johannesburg and Luanda (Project Head Wendl, Tobias )
• B08 - Changing family and kinship structures in Westafrica (Project Head Alber, Erdmute )
• C1 - Das Pflanzenwissen der Digo (Kenia) im Vergleich mit der wissenschaftlichen Botanik (Project Heads Beck, Erwin ;  Rottland, Franz )
• C3 - Die Neujahrsfeste der Yoruba und der Swahili als Relikte antiker Globalisierungstendenzen (Project Head Lange, Dierk )
• C04 - Islamisches Recht und islamisches Bildungswesen in Ostafrika im Spannungsfeld von Lokalität und Globalität (Project Heads Loimeier, Roman ;  Oßwald, Rainer )
• C5 - Bewässerung am Kilimanjaro (Project Head Winter, Jürgen Christoph )
• C06 - Local Perceptions of Globalised Statehood. Institutional conditions for the reconstruction of agency within processes of modernisation (Project Heads Macamo, Elisio Salvado ;  Neubert, Dieter )
• C07 - Disease Prevention and Health Care in Africa - Local Health Insurance Initiatives in Senegal (Project Head Nagel, Eckhard )
• N01 - South-South Social Collaboration Ties between Cuba and Africa: Voices and Experiences from "Above and Below" (Project Head Hansing, Katrin )
• V - Zentrale Aufgaben des Sonderforschungsbereichs (Project Head Neubert, Dieter )

• Applicant Institution: Universität Bayreuth
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Dieter Neubert