In the shadow of good governance: an ethnography of civil service reform in Africa

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Dissertation / thesis

Title:	In the shadow of good governance: an ethnography of civil service reform in Africa
Author:	Anders, Gerhard
Year:	2010
Issue:	16
Pages:	165
Language:	English
Series:	Afrika-Studiecentrum series (ISSN 1570-9310)
City of publisher:	Leiden
Publisher:	Brill
Geographic term:	Malawi
Subjects:	governance civil service reform civil servants dissertations (form)
External link:	https://hdl.handle.net/1887/18537
Abstract:	This study, which is based on the author's doctoral thesis 'Civil servants in Malawi: cultural dualism, moonlighting and corruption in the shadow of good governance' (2005), traces the implementation of the good governance agenda in Malawi from the loan documents signed by government representatives and the Bretton Woods institutions to the individual experiences of civil servants who responded in unforeseen ways to the reform measures. Ethnographic evidence gathered in government offices, neighbourhoods and the private homes of civil servants living in Malawi's urban and periurban areas undermines the common perception of a disconnect between State institutions and society in Africa. Instead, the book presents a comprehensive analysis of civil servants' attempt to negotiate the effects of civil service reform and economic crisis at the turn of the 21st century. [ASC Leiden abstract]