In the Shadow of Good Governance: An Ethnography of Civil Service Reform in Africa: 16 (Afrika-studiecentrum Series, 16) - Softcover

The anthropology of the postcolonial state takes a major step forward with Gerhard Anders' outstanding study. His ethnographic insights into the planning, implementation and manipulation of the civil service reform in Malawi give food for thought well beyond the specific case he writes about. No other study of the 1990s good governance agenda in Africa has accomplished Anders' nuanced account of the lived experience among civil servants caught up in the throes of change. This is a landmark study that challenges facile generalizations about corruption and the dysfunctional state in Africa.
Harri Englund, University of Cambridge

This book traces the implementation of the good governance agenda in Malawi from World Bank policy documents to the individual experiences of civil servants who responded in unforeseen ways to the reform. It presents a fine-grained ethnographic account of what African civil servants actually do, both at home and the office.