Both authoritative and accessible, African Development introduces the issues, actors, and institutions at play in development trajectories across sub-Saharan Africa. This new edition, thoroughly updated, includes an entirely new chapter devoted to key demographic trends in the region, especially rapid urbanization and the distinct “youth bulge.�  There is also a review of major democratic gains and disappointments since 2011; analysis of renewed internal armed conflicts; and attention to the contemporary sovereign debt crisis relative to the structural adjustment debt of earlier decades. The book uniquely brings to life the collective impact of history, economics, and politics on development in the region.

The much heralded growth and transformation of many economies in sub-Saharan Africa over the last decade continues to receive prominent attention in academic scholarship and among policy practitioners. An apparent feature about this transformation, however, is that Africa's youth appear to have been left out. This book critically examines the extent and consequences of the marginalization of African youth. It questions conventional wisdoms about data trends, aspirational goals, and common policy interventions surrounding Africa's youth that have been variously propagated in both the development studies literature and in mainstream donor policy reports. The book explores macro trends from both a temporal and cross-regional perspective in order to highlight what is distinct about contemporary African youth and whether their prospects and behaviours do actually vary from their counterparts in other regions of the world or from previous generations of African youth. Such studies include cross-country analyses of youth employment patterns and modes of political participation, in-depth examination of the behaviours and aspirations of the urban youth, and critical reflections on the impact of rural employment initiatives, vocational education, and learnership programmes. The incorporation of multiple methods and disciplines, as well as its attention to policy issues, ensures that the book will be of great interest to graduate students, researchers, and professional researchers whose work lies at the intersection of African area studies and development studies as well as those focused on development economics, political science, and public policy and administration.

The much heralded growth and transformation of many economies in sub-Saharan Africa over the last decade continues to receive prominent attention in academic scholarship and among policy practitioners. An apparent feature about this transformation, however, is that Africa's youth appear to have been left out. This book critically examines the extent and consequences of the marginalization of African youth. It questions conventional wisdoms about data trends, aspirational goals, and common policy interventions surrounding Africa's youth that have been variously propagated in both the development studies literature and in mainstream donor policy reports. The book explores macro trends from both a temporal and cross-regional perspective in order to highlight what is distinct about contemporary African youth and whether their prospects and behaviours do actually vary from their counterparts in other regions of the world or from previous generations of African youth. Such studies include cross-country analyses of youth employment patterns and modes of political participation, in-depth examination of the behaviours and aspirations of the urban youth, and critical reflections on the impact of rural employment initiatives, vocational education, and learnership programmes. The incorporation of multiple methods and disciplines, as well as its attention to policy issues, ensures that the book will be of great interest to graduate students, researchers, and professional researchers whose work lies at the intersection of African area studies and development studies as well as those focused on development economics, political science, and public policy and administration.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Many African countries have experienced unprecedented rates of economic growth in recent years, yet their economic transformations display features that could constrain their future growth prospects. Patterns of urbanization without industrialization, rapid growth of low productivity jobs in the informal economy, and a neglected agricultural sector with increased need for important foods are all areas for concern as Africa continues to develop. Using Ghana as a case study, Ghana's Economic and Agricultural Transformation: Past Performance and Future Prospects integrates economic and political analysis to explore the challenges and opportunities of Africa's transformation. It examines Ghana's overall economic performance since it went through a major Structural Adjustment Program in the early 1980s, and provides an in-depth empirical analysis of the broader economy and the agricultural sector over the last four decades. It explains why Ghana has not transformed its economy more substantially, why its agriculture sector has not played a greater role beyond cocoa production, and what must be done in the future to achieve a successful transformation. In addressing these puzzles Ghana's Economic and Agricultural Transformation considers what the rest of the world can learn from Ghana's experience.

When and why do the urban poor vote for opposition parties in Africa's electoral democracies? The strategies used by political parties to incorporate the urban poor into the political arena provide a key answer to this question. This book explores and defines the role of populism in Africa's urban centers and its political outcomes. In particular, it examines how a populist strategy offers greater differentiation from the multitude of African parties that are defined solely by their leader's personality, and greater policy congruence with those issues most relevant to the lives of the urban poor. These arguments are elaborated through a comparative analysis of Senegal and Zambia based on surveys with informal sector workers and interviews with slum dwellers and politicians. The book contributes significantly to scholarship on opposition parties and elections in Africa, party linkages, populism, and democratic consolidation.

How can a small university like Carnegie Mellon have such a big impact on the world? Ironically, being small is a key reason the university is so prolific. An intimate environment, coupled with an extraordinary ratio of world-class thinkers, has produced a culture of collaboration that may be unmatched elsewhere in higher education.
How that culture emerged is now chronicled in a series of essays by Carnegie Mellon faculty, including the late Nobel Prize-winner Herb Simon, the "father of artificial intelligence." Find out what caused Carnegie Mellon's meteoric rise from its trade school roots to one of the finest research universities in the world in The Innovative University, published by Carnegie Mellon University Press.

When and why do the urban poor vote for opposition parties in Africa's electoral democracies? The strategies used by political parties to incorporate the urban poor into the political arena provide a key answer to this question. This book explores and defines the role of populism in Africa's urban centers and its political outcomes. In particular, it examines how a populist strategy offers greater differentiation from the multitude of African parties that are defined solely by their leader's personality, and greater policy congruence with those issues most relevant to the lives of the urban poor. These arguments are elaborated through a comparative analysis of Senegal and Zambia based on surveys with informal sector workers and interviews with slum dwellers and politicians. The book contributes significantly to scholarship on opposition parties and elections in Africa, party linkages, populism, and democratic consolidation.