Dam building by the illiberal modernisers: ideological drivers for Rwanda and Tanzania’s megawatt mission

IF 1.3 Q2 ANTHROPOLOGY
B. Dye
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引用次数: 2

Abstract

Globally, and especially in Africa, twentieth-century dams were typically imagined through high modernist ideology as the premier development project, but this ended with the decade-long hiatus in dam construction from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s. However, dam-building is back. Does this mark the resurgence of a modernising ideology, of grand plans of mega-infrastructures implemented from an enlightened vanguard? This article analyses this question using Rwanda and Tanzania as case studies. It makes a twofold contribution. The first, to the literature on why the resurgence of dams is happening. Using theory, it shows how to understand the influence of ideology alongside other strategic factors and conceptualises the application of high modernism to dam building. This allows a more precise assessment of the influence of ideology on dam resurgence, with the cases of Rwanda and Tanzania demonstrating significant contrasts with past tendencies to aggrandise the infrastructure itself as the harbinger of progress. The second contribution to this special issue is on the ideology influencing a raft of 21st century illiberal states in Africa that have embarked on grand development missions. The article compliments other texts in this issue, demonstrating the presence of an evolved illiberal modernisers ideology that combines tenants of the past with more recent norms. Thus, an assumption of technologies’ ability to linearly generate development is combined with contrasting ideas about sustainability, the importance of the private sector’s role and hydropower’s limitations. This demonstrates the way today’s illiberal modernisers, engaged in global debates, adapt and update development ideology.
狭隘的现代化主义者修建大坝:卢旺达和坦桑尼亚兆瓦计划的意识形态驱动者
在全球范围内,特别是在非洲,20世纪的水坝通常被高度现代主义的意识形态想象为首要的发展项目,但这一趋势随着20世纪90年代中期到21世纪头十年中期水坝建设的十年中断而结束。然而,大坝建设又回来了。这是否标志着现代化意识形态的复兴,标志着开明先锋队实施的大型基础设施宏伟计划的复兴?本文以卢旺达和坦桑尼亚为案例分析了这一问题。它做出了双重贡献。首先是关于为什么大坝会重新兴起的文献。运用理论,展示了如何理解意识形态与其他战略因素的影响,并将高度现代主义在大坝建设中的应用概念化。这可以更精确地评估意识形态对大坝复兴的影响,卢旺达和坦桑尼亚的情况与过去扩大基础设施本身作为进步先行者的趋势形成鲜明对比。本期特刊的第二篇文章是关于意识形态对21世纪非洲许多非自由国家的影响,这些国家已经开始了宏伟的发展使命。这篇文章是对本期其他文章的补充,展示了一种不断发展的非自由主义现代主义意识形态的存在,这种意识形态将过去的租户与最近的规范结合在一起。因此,关于技术线性促进发展的能力的假设与关于可持续性、私营部门作用的重要性和水力发电的局限性的对比观点相结合。这展示了当今参与全球辩论的狭隘的现代化主义者如何调整和更新发展意识形态。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Critical African Studies
Critical African Studies Arts and Humanities-Arts and Humanities (all)
CiteScore
3.00
自引率
0.00%
发文量
19
期刊介绍: Critical African Studies seeks to return Africanist scholarship to the heart of theoretical innovation within each of its constituent disciplines, including Anthropology, Political Science, Sociology, History, Law and Economics. We offer authors a more flexible publishing platform than other journals, allowing them greater space to develop empirical discussions alongside theoretical and conceptual engagements. We aim to publish scholarly articles that offer both innovative empirical contributions, grounded in original fieldwork, and also innovative theoretical engagements. This speaks to our broader intention to promote the deployment of thorough empirical work for the purposes of sophisticated theoretical innovation. We invite contributions that meet the aims of the journal, including special issue proposals that offer fresh empirical and theoretical insights into African Studies debates.
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