Year: 2013
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: ConClusionsCorruption, politiCs and politiCal order soundlessly collateral and incompatible: World is suddener than we fancy it.1 the diverse articulations of corruption explored in this book should make one thing visible: 'corruption' is a political concept. it is political in the ways that it is produced by the development discourse, shaping social realities through powerful imageries and material interventions. it is political in the various ways that the academic discourse identifies the structuring properties denoted by corruption, reiterating the blurred boundary between the public and private in africa.and lastly, it is political conceptualised as an empty signifier through which particular groups manage to inscribe particular demands and interests in a universal horizon.it is this last conceptualisation that i seek to develop in more detail in this concluding chapter, drawing on substantive insights from the chapters on the academic and developmental discourse on corruption, as well as fleshing out some of the more pertinent findings from the case-studies on professional associations in tanzania.in doing this, i hope to relate these insights to some questions of general theoretical interest.the case-studies illuminate political micro-struggles, looking at a small and narrowly circumscribed field of social agents and the ways they articulate their demands using corruption as a signifier portraying 'public' 1 excerpt from the poem "snow" by louis Macneice (see also the heading to Chapter 1, above).the full poem reads as follows:the room was suddenly rich and the great bay-window was spawning snow and pink roses against it soundlessly collateral and incompatible: World is suddener than we fancy it.World is crazier and more of it than we think, incorrigibly plural.i peel and portion a tangerine and spit the pips and feel the drunkenness of things being various.and the fire flames with a bubbling sound for world is more spiteful and gay than one supposeson the tongue on the eyes on the ears in the palms of one's handsthere is more than glass between the snow and the huge roses.
Source: BRILL eBooks
Author: Lucy Koechlin
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W2492720992