Call for Chapters

Political Economy of Contemporary African Popular Culture: Selected Case Studies.

Editors:

Dr Kealeboga Aiseng (Rhodes University, School of Journalism and Media Studies) K.aiseng@ru.ac.za )

Dr Israel Fadipe (North West University, Indigenous Language Media in Africa (ILMA) IsraelFadipe77@gmail.com )

Professor Phillip Mpofu (North West University, Indigenous Language Media in Africa (ILMA) Phillip.mpofu@gmail.com )

We are inviting contributors to submit chapters for an edited book entitled: Political Economy of Contemporary African Popular Culture: Selected Case Studies.

Interested contributors are encouraged to submit a 700-word abstract summarizing the chapter background, mission, case study and author biography by (03rd October 2022).

The final chapter should be 6 000-7500 words maximum. The chapters will be reviewed through a double-blind review process.

All proposals should be sent by email to the editors: K.aiseng@ru.ac.za; IsraelFadipe77@gmail.com; Phillip.mpofu@gmail.com

Aims of the book

As the title of the book signals, the focus is on contemporary African popular culture, the period from the year 2000 to the present. African popular culture during this period has grown to become a cultural platform for representing and constructing identities, representing social histories, and being a public sphere for marginal social groups, and it has influenced politics on the continent. However, it has also become a weapon for the elites and the ruling class. Popular culture has been used to silence some voices, it has been used as a form of propaganda and it has also been used to capture states.

These issues are a sign that African popular culture continues to grow beyond being an entertainment, information and education terrain. Since the year 2000, African popular culture has gone through a lot of transformations: social, political, economic, cultural and technological. The proposed chapters will visit the African popular culture field to study the changes, challenges and opportunities that have transpired in it.

The chapters will focus on the application of the theory of political economy into the field of contemporary African popular culture. Discussions on the role of contemporary African popular culture, politics and capitalist power in this field characterize the proposed chapters. Scholars must examine the canon within which African popular culture is situated. The discussions in the chapters will seek to unpack how contemporary African popular culture remains trapped within political and neoliberal control mechanisms.

The chapters will use case studies to illustrate current issues, challenges and opportunities that political economy offers to contemporary African popular culture. The chapters will give real-life examples of how politics, governance, neoliberalism, and market forces impact contemporary African popular culture. The book intends to offer a global cross-cultural perspective of African popular culture in different countries, especially understudied countries.

The discussions in this book will revolve around new media as a form of African popular culture, media capture, the use of influencers, populism in African popular culture, ownership in contemporary African popular culture, advertising, policy and regulations of contemporary African popular culture. We are looking for case studies of the political economy of contemporary African popular culture in different regions: West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, Southern Africa, and Northern Africa. Case studies can be in the following, but not limited, to popular cultural artefacts:

1. Celebrity/fandom culture
2. Gaming culture (games)
3. Reality television
4. New media
5. Pop music/Afro music/hip hop music
6. Cinema
7. Football as pop culture
8. Fintech.

Key Dates

Abstract submission deadline: October 3rd, 2022

Notification to authors: October 21st, 2022

Chapter Submission date: January 31st, 2023

Book publication: May 31st, 2023