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SSN seminar: "Africa Rising?" with Professor Janet Roitman

Please join us for this livestreamed seminar with Professor Janet Roitman of The New School, hosted by the Deakin Science and Society Network (SSN).

You can join the conversation on Twitter by following us at @SSNDeakin and using the hashtag #SSNseminar.

Africa Rising: Class or Finance?

Abstract:

The expression “Africa Rising” refers to an emerging middle class, or the harbinger of a new era for the continent – a claim that is debated. On the one hand, development economists measure the magnitude of the middle class while anthropologists and sociologists critique their economism. This debate is locked in opposition: quantitative versus qualitative. What’s missing is an account of motivations behind the Africa Rising claim itself. Who needs a definition of the middle class? The answer lies in the work of international consultancies, such as McKinsey & Company. In predicting and promoting the Africa Rising Narrative, consultancy firms have directed attention to the potential role of the private sector for public financing. “The middle class” is an actionable category of finance for the development of capital markets on the continent.

Speaker:

Janet Roitman is University Professor at The New School in New York. She is founder-director of The Platform Economies Research Network and an executive member of the Digital Ethnography Research Center (RMIT, Melbourne). Her research focuses on financial practices and the anthropology of value. She is the author of Fiscal Disobedience: An Anthropology of Economic Regulation in Central Africa (Princeton University Press) and Anti-Crisis (Duke University Press). Her research has received support from the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, l’Agence française du développement, the Institute for Public Knowledge, and US The National Science Foundation. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Cultural Economy and on the advisory board of Finance & Society.

Watch the seminar:

Seminar will stream on YouTube live. Access using the live link

Date/time: Thursday 3 February, 15:30 AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight Time, GMT+11)

Q&A with the speaker to follow. To send questions/participate in the chat, you’ll need to sign-in using a YouTube account.

The seminar will be recorded and available to watch on the SSN YouTube channel after the Livestream.

If you have any questions, please send to ssn-info@deakin.edu.au