Beyond the 'Crisis of Youth'?: Mining, farming, and civil society in post-war Sierra Leone | Land Portal

Informações sobre recurso

Date of publication: 
Fevereiro 2010
Resource Language: 
Pages: 
251-272
License of the resource: 

Sierra Leone's conflict has often been characterized as a 'crisis of youth'. For some, the post-war resurgence of grassroots associational life represents the unleashing of long-suppressed youth egalitarianism, yet this analysis tends to ignore the role of international aid in providing an economic incentive for impoverished Sierra Leoneans to embrace formal association. Case study evidence also shows that politics of 'community' identification and moral economies of patronage continue to affect postwar aid. Evidence of post-war social change can nevertheless be found outside the development sector. Diamond mining has long served as a driver of cultural modernization in Sierra Leone and detailed examination of post-war associational life in Kono District reveals that new foci and techniques of social activism have emerged since the end of the civil war. The decline of artisanal mining, with the expansion of large-scale industrial mining, and renewed interest in farming are driving a parallel resurgence of associational life in rural areas. Given that most Sierra Leoneans continue to depend on farming, this rural resurgence could yet represent the most durable basis for democratic change in Sierra Leone.

Autores e editores

Author(s), editor(s), contributor(s): 

Fanthorpe, Richard & Maconachie, Roy

Publisher(s): 

Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world, publishing in 70 languages and 190 countries. Our Global Academic Publishing program spans the entire academic and higher education spectrum, including a wide array of scholarly and general interest books, journals, and online products.

Mission

Provedor de dados

Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world, publishing in 70 languages and 190 countries. Our Global Academic Publishing program spans the entire academic and higher education spectrum, including a wide array of scholarly and general interest books, journals, and online products.

Mission

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