Description:

Jeffrey W. Paller, Columbia University
Democracy, development, and daily life are important, yet misunderstood concepts in Africa’s ethnically diverse and weakly institutionalized cities. Since African governments inherited colonial structures of authority, African cities have grown rapidly and unequally. African cities keep growing: By 2050, 70 percent of all Africans are projected to live in urban areas, signaling a huge transformation away from rural life. But the majority of these people will live in slum conditions where infrastructure is poor, services are under-provided, and property rights are insecure. This study examines a central concept of political life—accountability—and does so in unexpected places: African slums. Based on significant fieldwork in urban Ghana, the study intervenes in major debates about public goods provision and civic participation, ethnic politics and democratization, and the future of urban sustainability in a rapidly changing world. The study transcends the narrative of a failing and corrupt Africa and a “planet of slums” and charts a new way forward for the study of democracy and development in urban Africa.

Bio:
Jeffrey Paller is an Earth Institute Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Columbia University. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses on the practice of democracy and accountability in urban African slums. He also examines the political conditions under which collective action leads to public goods outcomes. He is currently working on a book manuscript about accountability in urban Africa based on his fieldwork in Ghana, as well as research projects that examine state and slum relations, land rights, and public goods across Africa. Paller’s work has appeared in African Studies Review, Polity, and Africa Today. In 2016, he will be an Assistant Professor of Politics at University of San Francisco. Paller holds a B.A. in political science from Northwestern University.