Democracy, Morality and Imagination: the Importance of Elections in a Chewa Village in Rural Malawi

民主、道德和想象力：马拉维农村切瓦村选举的重要性

• 批准号: 1953725
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2017 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-1953725
• 关键词: Democracy; Morality; Imagination; Importance; Elections

The study will investigate the relationship between political identities and wider social imaginaries in a rural Chewa village in Malawi during the 2019general elections. After 30 years of dictatorship under Dr Hastings Banda, Malawi conducted its first multiparty elections in 1994. However, governmentpolicies have largely failed to improve the conditions of the majority of the population, and, after a series of corruption scandals, trust in politicians isvery low. Moreover, voting tends to be very regional with parties rarely gaining large support outside their regional bases. Yet participation in electionsremains very high, with close to 71% of eligilble voters participating in the 2014 elections. Taking a cue from recent anthropological reflections on thepolitical (Candea, 2011; Curtis and Spencer) and studies of elections (Spencer, 2007; Banerjee, 2014), as well as Harri Englund's (2006, 2011) workon liberalism and popular grievances in Malawi, the research will attempt to understand the importance of voting and democracy to members of achewa village. Paying particular attention to non-elite moral imaginaries and grievances, their relationship to political identity, and the mediums andsettings they are generated in. The study aims to contribute to the small but growing anthropology on democracy and elections. As well as exploringthemes of liberalism and the postcolonial state; South-Central African politics; media; moral narrative and ethics

该研究将调查2019年大选期间马拉维切瓦村的政治身份与更广泛的社会想象之间的关系。在黑斯廷斯·班达博士30年的独裁统治之后，马拉维于1994年举行了第一次多党选举。然而，政府的政策在很大程度上未能改善大多数人的生活状况，而且，在一系列腐败丑闻之后，对政治家的信任非常低。此外，投票往往具有很强的地域性，政党很少在其地区基础之外获得大量支持。然而，选举参与率仍然很高，接近71%的合格选民参加了2014年的选举。从最近人类学对政治的反思（Candea, 2011; Curtis and Spencer）和对选举的研究（Spencer, 2007; Banerjee, 2014），以及Harri Englund（2006, 2011）对马拉维自由主义和民众不满的研究中得到启示，该研究将试图理解投票和民主对achewa村成员的重要性。特别关注非精英的道德想象和不满，它们与政治身份的关系，以及它们产生的媒介和环境。这项研究的目的是为民主和选举的人类学研究做出贡献。以及探索自由主义和后殖民国家的主题；中南非洲政治；媒体行业;道德叙事与伦理