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Claudia Roth's work on Bobo-Dioulasso, a city of half a million residents in Burkina Faso, provides uniquely detailed insight into the evolving life-world of a West African urban population in one of the poorest countries in the world. Closely documenting the livelihood strategies of members of various neighbourhoods, Roth’s work calls into question established notions of “the African family” as a solidary network, documents changing marriage and kinship relations under the impact of a persistent economic crisis, and explores the increasingly precarious social status of young women and men.
“Roth was not the first social scientist to look at marriage and gender relations in an urban West African setting, of course. But she laid the groundwork for further research to be conducted on marriage in Burkina Faso, and particularly on intergenerational relationships. This is what gives Roth's work particular strength and depth, and makes Urban Dreams a very readable and not-to-be-missed contribution to scholarship on social relations in West Africa.” • Africa Spectrum
“This is a very timely project and an excellent way to bring out the larger contribution of Claudia Roth to Africanist anthropology. Roth’s work is of very high quality and extremely original, especially regarding her focus on intergenerational relations, gender dynamics within the household, matters of love and marriage, and the problems of urban life with little income or job security.” • Mahir Saul, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
“Claudia Roth conveys a vivid image of the often separate, complementary, and at times conflictive worlds of men and women, parents and children, and siblings. The reader gets a feeling for the effects of economic and social transformations on individuals.” • Katja Werthmann, University of Leipzig
“Urban Dreams is a wonderful contribution to the understanding of contemporary social change, both in Burkina Faso and more generally.” • Yacouba Banhoro, University of Ouagadougou
Claudia Roth (1955–2012) taught and conducted anthropological research at the Universities of Zurich, Bern, and Lucerne. She served on the board of the Swiss Society for African Studies (SGAS/SSEA) and was a member of the International Mande Studies Association (MANSA). Urban Dreams is the first collection of her work to appear in English.
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Claudia Roth’s Work on Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso
Willemijn de Jong
PART I: ETHNOGRAPHY AND REFLEXIVITY
Chapter 1. Culture Shock, Power and Knowledge: Negotiating Boundaries in Ethnographic Fieldwork
PART II: NEGOTIATING LOVE AND MARRIAGE
Chapter 2. Beware When the Women of Bobo Dress Up!: An Ethnographic Contribution
Chapter 3. “What is Love?”: Changing Matrimony in Bobo-Dioulasso – A Case Study
Chapter 4. Social Security and Gender: Marital Crisis as a Mirror of the Economic Crisis
PART III: ELDERLY PARENTS AND THEIR CHILDREN: SHARING OR LIVING IN POVERTY
Chapter 5. Blood Ties as a Social Network: The African Extended Family as an Economic Association
Chapter 6. The Invisible Impoverishment of the Elderly in Bobo-Dioulasso
Chapter 7. 'Shameful': The Inverted Intergenerational Contract in Bobo-Dioulasso
Chapter 8. The Strength of Badenya Ties: Siblings and Social Security in Old Age – The Case of Urban Burkina Faso
PART IV: YOUTH: DREAMS AND HARDSHIPS
Chapter 9. Tea and Dreams: Men’s Generational Conflict in Bobo-Dioulasso
Chapter 10. Between Dreams of Grandeur and Pragmatism: Young People in Urban Burkina Faso
Publications of Claudia Roth
Index