POL S 362 A: Data, Technology, and Development in Africa

Course Description:

In the study of contemporary Africa, scholars have increasingly confronted numerous paradoxes about the continent’s political, economic, and social development that belie any easy or agreed-upon answers across numerous social science disciplines. These puzzles, and a lack of scholarly consensus to resolve them, may arise not just from disagreement over theoretical perspectives from African and Africanist scholarship over the last few decades; they may also arise from a (previous) lack of systematic data collection, analysis, and synthesis from across the continent.

Consider some of these puzzles (all of which we address in this class -- there will be others):

• Given that Europe and Africa had relatively similar levels of wealth and political organization as recently as the 15^th century CE, why did Europe enslave millions of Africans and colonize most of its territory rather than the other way around?
• How is it that European colonization of Africa was done “on the cheap” and without the imposition of much colonial infrastructure, at the same time that colonization seems so destructive to modern African politics, markets, and culture?
• Why is it that Africa is so rich in (natural and human) resources and endowments at the same time that its growth has fallen behind other regions?
• Why does ethnic identity in Africa appear to limit territorial consolidation and economic growth, and galvanize domestic conflict, if scholars view social identities as mere “social constructs”?
• Why did democracy “suddenly” spread across Africa at the end of the Cold War if Africa supposedly had no history of democratic governance?
• Today, why do African citizens routinely use elections to hold political leaders accountable at the same time elected officials often rig elections to stay in power?
• Why do African societies seem more amenable to adoption of new information and communications technology (ICT) and digital media, and at lower levels of wealth, compared to other global regions?
• Why has the global marketplace proved so open to adoption of “Afrofuturism” in the 21^st century when it rejected numerous aspects of African culture(s) in the 20^th century?

This class attempts to grapple with these puzzles, and how to answer them, from the perspective of the scientific method. The class suggests that the inability to achieve scholarly consensus on the puzzles underlying these paradoxes may arise from different, siloed, or otherwise convoluted evidentiary standards and methodologies causing scholars from across disciplines to simply “talk past one another” when a more trenchant examination “of the record” and use of scientific research designs would reveal more consensus about the causes, processes, and outcomes of African development over the last 500 years.

In this class, we investigate these paradoxes, along with their theoretical, empirical, and methodological origins, by studying the development of African states, markets, and societies over the past 500 years. To do so, we will rely on the scientific method, new data sources, and what I term “cliometric historiography” -- the use of long-run systematic political, economic, and social data matched with single-case qualitative narratives to interrogate claims made historically and contemporaneously about African development. This involves the use a variety of methods from data science, demography, ethnography, economic history, quantitative social science, and the emerging field of “technology for development” to bolster theoretical claims, test hypotheses, and synthesize empirical analyses to contribute new knowledge to many questions that bedevil previous scholarship. In so doing, the approach in this class rejects many of the narratives of Africa’s position in a globalizing world from the 15^th century to the present, including prospects for Africa’s future and global position in the 21^st century.

This course will both reflect and depart from standard 300-level courses in the social sciences. Similar to other courses, this course will be organized longitudinally and thematically. After beginning with an Introduction and Scope of Inquiry, in Module 1 we will examine the pre-colonial to early modern period, or roughly pre-history to the 15^th century CE. In Module 2, we will look at European contact starting in the 15^th century to the colonial period, which ended in the mid-20^th century. In Module 3, we will look at the post-independence period after 1960 to the end of the Cold War, followed by the era of democratization and market growth (1989 to the present). We will end the course with Module 4, by looking at Afrofuturism and the global position of Africa in the 21^st century.

Learning Objectives:

After completing this course, students should be able to:

• Apply data and the scientific method to pose and address questions and problems that are relevant to current African development through the lens of the evolution of its states, markets, and society over the past 500 years (including, but not limited to, the puzzles listed above);
• Explain the diverse types of data used by social scientists to study African development and the various qualitative, quantitative, and experimental methodologies used to exploit these data, the hypotheses they test (and test well or not), and the conclusions that are rightly or wrongly drawn from these tests;
• Explain how these analyses confirm, reject, or otherwise advance the common narratives of African development in both scholarship and the among the public, specifically regarding the challenges posed by variation in political regime type, economic inequality, and social (ethnic) diversity, and the ethical and social implications of drawing conclusions about Africa and Africa’s contribution to globalization from incomplete or biased data sources;
• Consider “best practice” in how scholars do and should communicate the results from their analyses and how that shapes learning, scholarship, public policy, and public perceptions (or not) of African development, including whether and how political regime type, economic inequality, and ethnic diversity explain outcomes within Africa and comparing Africa to the world;
• Demonstrate basic proficiency in examining publicly available data on African development, including proficiency in problem formulation related to specific paradoxes or puzzles per the homework and exam assignments across different data sources, disciplines, and methodologies.

Required Texts:

• Africa’s Development in Historical Perspective, edited by Akyeampong, Bates, Nunn, and Robinson, Cambridge University Press, 2014.
• Africa in the World: Capitalism, Empire, Nation-State, by Frederick Cooper, Harvard University Press, 2014.
• Students should also make sure to have watched: Black Panther, film, Directed by Ryan Coogler, 2018, by week 10. 

Pre-requisites:

This course aims to fulfill class requirements and listing in three spheres. Of course, students may take it for other reasons, and need not be limited to the ways the course fits programmatic requirements across various majors and minors.

The first sphere this course fits within is the political economy and comparative politics concentrations of the Political Science major. Political economy is the study of the intersection of state and market actors and institutions. Comparative politics is the comparative study of political development, political institutions, and political behavior within countries over time and between countries. Students will find this course builds on POLS 204 (Introduction to Comparative Politics), POLS 270 (Introduction to Political Economy), and other offerings. However, as mentioned above, students should recognize that this course is “data intensive” and therefore unlike other standard 300-level classes in the political science department.

Second, the course will serve as an elective for the Data Science minor that cross-cuts both the Data Skills and Data Studies “lists” required for the minor. Given the assigned material, Professor Long strongly recommends that Data Science minor students have already completed at least one Data Skills or Data Studies class.

Third, this course fulfills the course requirement from JSIS, “The Political Economy of Africa,” as part of their African Studies minor.

This course does not assume previous knowledge of Africa, but at least some coursework in the social sciences will be useful. For all students, some familiarity with introductory statistics or quantitative social science will be useful (if taken at the AP or collegiate level), but not required. Student assignments (homeworks and exams) will not necessarily require a certain level of statistical training (although options on those assignment will allow students who so choose to leverage them), but some of the readings are quite technical and students unfamiliar with certain concepts in quantitative social science may require extra effort to supplement their learning.