Prisoners of Freedom: Human Rights and the African Poor: 14 (California Series in Public Anthropology)

Englund, Harri

ISBN 10: 0520249240 / ISBN 13: 9780520249240

Published by University of California Press, 2006

About this Item

Please see the condition note after this for details, if this is missing please consider Acceptable to mean poor quality that could include major staining, water damage, writing, missing dustjacket, etc etc. Our books are dispatched from a Yorkshire former cotton mill. We list via barcode/ISBN so please note that the images are stock images and may not be the exact copy you receive, furthermore the details about edition and year might not be accurate as many publishers reuse the same ISBN for multiple editions and as we simply scan a barcode or enter an ISBN we do not check the validity of the edition data when listing. If you're looking for an exact edition please don't order (at least not without checking with us first, although we don't always have time to check). We aim to dispatch prompty, the service used will depend on order value and book size. We can ship to most countries, see our shipping policies. Payment is via Abe only.

Seller Inventory # L-BBS00630-RAG-20240524-A

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Prisoners of Freedom: Human Rights and the African Poor: 14 (California Series in Public Anthropology)
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520249240
• ISBN 13: 9780520249240
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: Acceptable
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

In this vivid ethnography, Harri Englund investigates how ideas of freedom impede struggles against poverty and injustice in emerging democracies. Reaching beyond a narrow focus on the national elite, Prisoners of Freedom shows how foreign aid and human rights activism hamper the pursuit of democratic citizenship in Africa. The book explores how activists’ aspirations of self-improvement, pursued under harsh economic conditions, find in the human rights discourse a new means to distinguish oneself from the poor masses. Among expatriates, the emphasis on abstract human rights avoids confrontations with the political and business elites. Drawing on long-term research among the Malawian poor, Englund brings to life the personal circumstances of Malawian human rights activists, their expatriate benefactors, and the urban and rural poor as he develops a fresh perspective on freedom―one that recognizes the significance of debt, obligation, and civil virtues.

About the Author

Harri Englund is University Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of From War to Peace on the Mozambique-Malawi Borderland and the editor of A Democracy of Chameleons: Politics and Culture in the New Malawi and Rights and the Politics of Recognition in Africa.