Home, death and leadership: discourses of an educated elite from north-western Ghana*

Lentz, Carola

doi:10.1111/j.1469-8676.1994.tb00275.x

Cited by 33 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Many have built large houses, often outshining those of local elites, in their home communities or the regional and national capitals. As has been found in other parts of Africa (Lentz 1994), here too migration has shaken traditional relationships by enabling relatively young people who may not belong to the ruling classes to command respect. Migrants can climb the social ladder in other ways -driving smart cars, wearing fashionable clothes, owning the latest technology, starting a business and, importantly, through charitable actions for community projects.…”

Section: Hta and Local Community Leaders (Arrow I)mentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Later scholars of nationally based HTAs embedded their studies in theories of elite formation and focused on the power relationships between migrants and their hometowns (see Lentz 1994 for a review). They conceptualized HTAs as a way for urban elites to consolidate their position in the post-colonial state (Woods 1994).…”

Section: Tracing Politics In the Study Of African Hometown Associationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Small is beautiful: the micro‐politics of transnational relationships between Ghanaian hometown associations and communities back home

Mazzucato

Kabki

2009

Global Networks

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this article we investigate why some hometowns in Ghana are more successful than others in mobilizing resources for community development projects from their hometown associations (HTAs) abroad. We analyse the praxis of HTA‐financed development by studying all actors involved in the process – HTAs and migrants abroad and local community leaders and their populations in Ghana. We find there is a relationship between the size of the community and the effectiveness of HTA mobilization. From a matched sample of five villages and towns in Ghana and their respective HTAs in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, we conclude that three important factors are at play in the relationship between size and effectiveness – the micro‐politics of relationships between migrant and local leaders; the institutions that exist at the village/town level to create incentives or sanctions for migrants; and the relationships of trust between the different actors involved.

show abstract

Section: Hta and Local Community Leaders (Arrow I)mentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Tracing Politics In the Study Of African Hometown Associationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small is beautiful: the micro‐politics of transnational relationships between Ghanaian hometown associations and communities back home

Mazzucato

Kabki

2009

Global Networks

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Work elsewhere (Lentz, 1994;Woods, 1994) suggests that activism within these groups is a way of expressing and cementing status, which means that their standpoint on diasporic relationships must be taken as partial and particular. It also tended to focus responses around inter-organisational flows as opposed to things like entrepreneurship.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Obligations towards home are not simply calculations about respect and future gain, but about deep seated attachments to place (Lentz, 1994). Funerals are centred on celebrating the strength of the kin group as opposed to simply remembering the dead, so that well-organised funerals in the hometown are a crucial part of securing respect.…”

Section: Security Civic Pride and Memorialisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Embedded Cosmopolitanism and the Politics of Obligation: The Ghanaian Diaspora and Development

Mohan

2006

Environ Plan A

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The paper analyses how identities and obligations operate within the spaces of transnational communities and how this affects development. Within spatially diffuse communities identities are fluid and overlapping, as are the obligations to multiple others -be that kin, ethnic group or nation -in different localities. The paper is concerned with the institutions through which these identities are formed and obligations are realised. These include families, clans, hometown associations, and religious organisations, which link people 'abroad' to people 'at home'. I understand these spaces as a form of public sphere involving a 'deterritorialised' citizenship, which has been termed 'embedded cosmopolitanism'. In this way obligations are not legally defined but operate as part of the moral universe of those concerned. The case study is based upon recent fieldwork on Ghanaians in the UK and their connections to other Ghanaians outside Ghana and to those at home. Research reveals how these complex networks of affiliation operate as well as the ways in which the state seeks to 'capture' support from them and how migrants selectively redefine both ethnic identities and family boundaries.

show abstract

“…In these accounts the language of class is often eschewed in favour of 'elites', who commonly do not own the means of production but exercise some control through their position in the state or in traditional power structures. Elite status may also be generated through education, migration, age and wisdom (Lentz 1994;Werbner 2004). However 'elite' and 'middle class' are not interchangeable terms.…”

Section: The Missing Middlementioning

confidence: 99%

Middle class construction: domestic architecture, aesthetics and anxieties in Tanzania

Mercer

2014

J. Mod. Afr. Stud.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper examines the new styles of houses under construction in contemporaryTanzania and suggests that they can be understood as the material manifestation of middle class growth. Through an examination of the architecture, interior décor and compound space in a sample of these new houses in urban Dar es Salaam and rural Kilimanjaro, the paper identifies four domestic aesthetics: the respectable house, the locally aspirant house, the globally aspirant house, and the minimalist house, each of which map on to ideas about ujamaa, liberalization and the consumption of global consumer goods in distinct ways. The paper argues that these different domestic aesthetics demonstrate intraclass differences, and in particular the emergence of a new middle class.

show abstract

Home, death and leadership: discourses of an educated elite from north-western Ghana*

Cited by 33 publications

References 12 publications

Small is beautiful: the micro‐politics of transnational relationships between Ghanaian hometown associations and communities back home

Small is beautiful: the micro‐politics of transnational relationships between Ghanaian hometown associations and communities back home

Embedded Cosmopolitanism and the Politics of Obligation: The Ghanaian Diaspora and Development

Middle class construction: domestic architecture, aesthetics and anxieties in Tanzania

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About