This edited volume transcends conventional state-centric and formalistic notions of regionalism and theorizes, conceptualizes and analyzes the complexities and contradictions of regionalization processes in contemporary Africa. The collection not only unpacks and theorizes the African state-society complex with regard to new regionalism, but also explicitly integrates the often neglected discourse of human security and human development. In so doing, the book moves the discussion of new regionalism forward at the same time as it adds important insights to security and development. It is organized into three parts. Part I theorizes, conceptualizes and analyzes the new regionalism in Africa from the point of view of the region (e.g. West, East, Central and Southern Africa). The national perspectives in Part II focus on the new regionalism in Africa from the point of view of particular countries or specific state-society complexes, such as Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the enclave of Cabinda, Angola and Zambia. Part III contains two concluding chapters that tie the main threads of the volume together, theoretically and empirically, and discuss the contribution of the analytical framework, the new regionalism approach (NRA) to the larger study of regionalism.
Biography
J. Andrew Grant is a researcher at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada and also works for the Centre for Developing-Area Studies at McGill University in Montréal, Canada. Fredrik Söderbaum is a post-doctoral researcher within the Department of Peace and Development Research (Padrigu) at Göteborg University in Göteborg, Sweden.
'... Africa provides a classic location for the study of the 'new regionalism' - a regionalism shorn of the conceptual rigidities... that marked its predecessors, that places regional relationships firmly within the frame created by globalization on the one hand, and the endless human search for physical and material security on the other. This regionalism is now central to the understanding of developments in modern Africa, and to that understanding this volume makes a very welcome and important contribution.' Christopher Clapham, The Centre of African Studies, Cambridge, UK (taken from the Foreword) 'This highly recommended book will reveal not only a new dimension in the study of regionalism but also a new approach to the study of Africa.' Professor Björn Hettne, Göteborg University, Sweden '...would be very useful in classes on Africa and also on the international political economy of regionalisation.' The European Journal of Development Research '...coherently organized, well edited, and accessible to non-specialists. Its analysis of regionalism in terms of relationships, rather than formal structures, is thought provoking...The New Regionalism in Africa makes a genuine contribution to our understanding of an important aspect of state-society relations in Africa, and its appearance is to be welcomed.' International Studies Review '...criticism of the state-centred approaches in IR and IPE is theoretically and empirically convincing. The examples from various African countries...provide a good foundation for [the book's] argument.' Modern African Studies
