scholarly journals Is Europe really the dream? Contingent paths among sub-Saharan migrants in Morocco

Africa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorte Thorsen
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Moral Obligation ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Border Zones ◽  
Upward Social Mobility ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Transnational Social Networks

AbstractThis article explores migrant existences in the border zones around Europe. Drawing on ethnographic research in Morocco undertaken in 2012, 2013 and 2015 and in continued engagements with migrants using social media, the article analyses three extended migrant stories, detailing their experiences of uncertainty, waiting and hoping. By elucidating the objectives informing migrants’ pathways and the material and moral considerations underpinning the ways in which they navigate migrant life in Rabat, the stories unveil how different temporalities and spatialities intersect and influence their decisions and ability to endure hardship and waiting. The article argues that uncertainties and risks inherent in migration, and in irregular migration in particular, have transformed collective expectations of the migratory project as a means of upward social mobility and economic security into hope and into a mode of hoping that individualizes success and failure. Meanwhile, the rising costs of migration and structural marginalization render the opportunity to travel elsewhere contingent on assistance from transnational social networks or international institutions. Individuals’ success or failure thus comes to depend on how understandings of hardship, waiting, opportunity and moral obligation are configured and reconfigured by lived experiences in different places.

Alternative Futures

2019 ◽  
pp. 15-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Luke
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Willful Ignorance ◽  
Alternative Futures ◽  
Archaeological Heritage ◽  
Standards Of Living ◽  
Extractive Economies ◽  
Corporate Social

This chapter explores heritage landscapes through the lens of extractive economies and jurisdiction of forests and archaeological zones. This new body politic rallies around economic profit that is bolstered by Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs, which enhance opportunities for social mobility and higher standards of living. Case studies explore the industries of marble and gold in the context of intangible and tangible heritage. Willful ignorance gives tacit approval for continued environmental degradation and erasure of archaeological heritage under the rhetoric of economic security. The evidence is contemporary, drawing from international fairs, ethnographic research, and the bureaucracies of heritage statecraft.

scholarly journals The emergence of the global debt society

Focaal ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (87) ◽  
pp. 46-60
Author(s):  
Ismael Vaccaro ◽  
Eric Hirsch ◽  
Irene Sabaté
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Moral Obligation ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
The North ◽  
Mortgage Crisis ◽  
Upward Social Mobility ◽  
National Economies ◽  
Finance Capitalism

AbstractAs a result of the financialization of household and national economies, indebtedness has become a system of domination shaping the making of contemporary subjects. This sort of governmentality through debt is a multifaceted phenomenon affecting people's economic and political behavior in both the North and the South. Disguised and legitimized by the moral obligation to repay debts, and by promises of upward social mobility (for the working classes in the North) and of development (for the population of the Global South), indebtedness disciplines households and neutralizes political agency under finance capitalism, as our ethnographic examples on the mortgage crisis in Spain and on microfinance in Peru reveal.

Gentrification and its contentment: An anthropological perspective on housing, heritage and urban social change in Shanghai

Urban Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (7) ◽  
pp. 1561-1578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Non Arkaraprasertkul
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Real Estate ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Alternative Form ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Anthropological Perspective ◽  
Upward Social Mobility ◽  
Selling Point

Based on ethnographic research during 2013–2015, this study describes an alternative form of gentrification in a traditional urban neighbourhood in Shanghai, unpacking how the notion architectural uniqueness of an urban heritage neighbourhood has imbued itself with cultural capital in the eyes of the new residents. By understanding how the original residents mobilise their knowledge of this particular selling point to benefit themselves economically by becoming renters, this study presents a case exemplifying a process of social change in which the ‘original residents’ themselves are active actors. The results of this process are the socioeconomic and ethic diversification of the neighbourhood as well as upward social mobility without any intervention by the local government or real estate developers. By suggesting an alternative process of gentrification in which not all residents are displaced unwillingly, this paper shows that the idea of gentrification demands more attention.

Slaves and society in Western Africa, c. 1445—c. 1700

1980 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Fage
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Western Africa ◽  
The Social ◽  
African Slaves ◽  
Limited Supply ◽  
Sub Saharan

Published European first-hand accounts of the coastlands from Senegal to Angola for the period c. 1445-c. 1700 are examined to see what light they throw on the extent to which institutions of servitude in pre-colonial sub-Saharan Africa were autonomous developments or a response to external demands for African slaves. It seems clear that when, in the early years of this period, European traders first approached societies along the western African coasts, they were commonly offered what they called ‘slaves’ in exchange for the goods they had brought. But it would be wrong to conclude from this that a slave class was necessarily a feature of western African coastal societies when these were first contacted by Europeans. It is clear, for instance, that the Europeans preferred to deal with societies which had developed monarchical governments, whose leaders had control of sufficient surpluses to make trade worthwhile. The evidence suggests that in these societies most individuals were dependants of a ruling and entrepreneurial elite, but that there was also social mobility. A category of dependants that particularly attracted the notice of the European observers was women, whom men of power and wealth tended to accumulate as wives (and hence as the potential mothers of still more dependants). The necessarily limited supply of women may have been a factor encouraging such men to seek to increase their followings, and thus their status, power and wealth, by recruiting other dependants by forcible, judicial and economic means. While many such dependants, or their offspring, would be assimilated into the social groups commanded by their masters, the latter were certainly willing to contemplate using recently acquired or refractory recruits in other ways, such as exchanging them for alternative forms of wealth.

scholarly journals “They Do Not Care about Us Anymore”: Understanding the Situation of Older People in Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 2337
Author(s):  
Joseph Asumah Braimah ◽  
Mark W. Rosenberg
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Climatic Factors ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Sanitation Services ◽  
Poor Access ◽  
Access To Water ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Sharing Circles

While existing research acknowledges copious challenges faced by older adults (people aged 60 and over) in Ghana and most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, they fail to situate the lived experiences of this vulnerable group within the broader context of health geography and public health. This paper draws insights from ecological systems theory and the “geographies of older people” literature to examine the lived experiences of older people in Ghana. Data for the study were gathered using interviews (42) and sharing circles (10). Our findings reveal a complex mix of experiences consistent with the different levels of the environment. Dominant themes include access to social support, functional impairment and poor health status, social status, poor access to water and sanitation services, food insecurity, economic insecurity, and caregiving burden. These findings support the wide-held notion that the experiences of older people are complex and produced by the interplay of both individual and structural factors. Our findings demonstrate that sociocultural, economic, political, and climatic factors are important consideration in promoting elderly wellbeing and quality of life in Ghana.

Upward social mobility in China: Do cities and neighbourhoods matter?

2018 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 94-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongsheng Chen ◽  
Xingping Wang ◽  
Guo Chen ◽  
Zhigang Li
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Upward Social Mobility

Producing communities and commodities: Safaricom and commercial nationalism in Kenya

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Tuwei ◽  
Melissa Tully
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
Mobile Services ◽  
Economic Success ◽  
Economic Growth And Development ◽  
National Sentiment ◽  
Upward Social Mobility ◽  
The Government

This research analyses Safaricom, one of the most established mobile operators in Kenya. Alongside the provision of mobile services, Safaricom has closely engaged with the government of Kenya, even getting involved in the nation’s politics. This study examines Safaricom’s advertisements from 2010-2014 to explore its use of national sentiment in its marketing. We argue that the ads reflect a commitment to promoting the country and its products through discourses of ‘commercial nationalism’, which present Safaricom as a driver of economic growth and development in Kenya. These discourses link Kenyan identity and distinctiveness to consumerism, commercial and economic success, profit and upward social mobility.

scholarly journals Localizing informal practices in transnational entrepreneurship

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laure Sandoz
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Personal Goals ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Informal Practices ◽  
Transnational Entrepreneurship ◽  
Unequal Access ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activities ◽  
Migration Regimes

Transnational entrepreneurs are often represented as active agents capable of mobilizing resources situated in different countries to develop new businesses. However, restrictive migration regimes limit the possibilities of individuals to become entrepreneurs. Based on ethnographic research in Barcelona, Spain, this article argues that, in a context of unequal access to formal resources, resorting to informality is crucial for many entrepreneurs as it enables them to expand their options for social mobility and achieve personal goals that would otherwise remain unreachable. The article proposes a critical perspective on the notions of informality and entrepreneurship. It highlights that these concepts rely on context-dependent norms set by certain social groups and challenged by others, which influence who can become an entrepreneur in specific environments. While certain categories of migrants are favorably positioned with regard to these norms, others are hindered by them and therefore are forced to engage in alternative entrepreneurial activities. How this is achieved, and the costs involved depend on the entrepreneur’s capacity to mobilize economic, cultural, social, and moral resources as well as on the perception of their practices as more or less legitimate or socially acceptable.

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