Fragmented Worlds, Coherent Lives: The Politics of Difference in Botswana

When the author first went to Botswana in the early 1980s to study the impact of a major land reform on rural life in this impoverished African country, social theory and ethnographic practice seemed solid and convincing. A decade later, and again in 1999, Motzafi-Haller returned to Bostwana and to the Tswapong people whose lives she had shared. She not only encountered a rapidly shifting social reality, but also began asking questions that stemmed from--and were shaped by--theoretical frames quite different from those she had employed in her earlier work. At the center of studys central narrative is a critical reflexive discussion exploring the tension between data recorded at a particular historical moment and the interpretive frames offered to make sense of such data. Motzafi-Haller explores the meaning of writing in the post post-modernist moment, when master narratives have been questioned and the very act of representing others has been problematized. Key theoretical debates emerging in the aftermath of what came to be known as the postmodernist crisis are also discussed.

Author: Pnina Motzafi-Haller

Language: English

Binding: Paperback

Pages: 232

Publisher: Praeger

Publication Date: 2002-08-30