Practical Wisdom and Resilience Overcoming Downside Risk

Grassroots Voices in Africa Under COVID-19
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-981-964454-4
Verlag: Springer Nature Singapore

Buch, Englisch, 175 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 451 g

This book classifies and assesses the real and perceived risks associated with both the Covid-19 pandemic and government responses to it in seven African countries — DR Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe — based on large scale quantitative and qualitative surveys conducted in 2022–2024. It also elucidates the people’s resilience in overcoming the risks within their political, social, and cultural context.

Although research on COVID-19 has been conducted in various fields, particularly in the medical field, the analytical perspective of this book is unique. COVID-19 prevention policies are considered to have seriously increased other risks, such as hunger, other infectious diseases, interruption of education, and various types of human rights violations, including increased conflict, violence against civilians, and political abuse. Therefore, this book argues that COVID-19 prevention policies, as well as the pandemic itself, should be regarded as the downside risk that triggers the deterioration of the other potential risks to vulnerable people.

Depicted here is the account of how trust in government, community, and family, within the existing political, social, and cultural environment, created pandemic politics, as elections during the pandemic instrumentalized and politicized government prevention measures. Economic distress threatened people's lives more than COVID-19 during lockdowns and severe behavioral restrictions, and the spread of misinformation discouraged people from being vaccinated. This book will be useful to policy makers and practitioners in international society who are preparing for the next pandemic based on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hanai, Kazuyo

Mine, Yoichi

Muchetu, Rangarirai Gavin

Kinyua, Laban Kithinji

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Wirtschaftspolitik, politische Ökonomie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Regionalwissenschaften, Regionalstudien
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Kommunal-, Regional-, und Landespolitik
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Arbeit/Sozialpädagogik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction.- COVID-19 as Downside Risk.- Risk Perceptions of COVID-19 in African seven countries.- Middle-class experience of COVID-19 in South Africa.- Agriculture and comparison of COVID-19 perception in rural and urban.

Über Autor(innen)

Kazuyo Hanai

Project Assistant Professor at the Institute for Future Initiatives, the University of Tokyo, Japan and Representative Director of NPO RITA-Congo. She holds a PhD in International Cooperation Studies from the University of Tokyo. She researches the role of resources in the conflicts in Africa and the responsibility of global society. In particular, her research focuses on the relations between the conflict minerals issue in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the responsibility of Japanese consumer society. Her main publication is (Toshindo, 2016, in Japanese). She has served as president of JSAS since 2023 and the principal investigator for the JSAS Hitachi project.

Rangarirai Gavin Muchetu

Assistant Professor at the College of Intercultural Communication at Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan. He obtained his PhD from Doshisha University, where he studied Japanese agriculture, drawing lessons for Zimbabwean policymakers. Thus, his research focuses on agrarian issues, particularly the interplay between state policy and the socio-economic relations of rural dwellers. His recent publications include and ‘South-South Cooperation in Agriculture: Impacts of Brazil’s More Food International Program on Post-Land Reform Social Organizations in Zimbabwe (2022, ).

Laban Kithinji Kinyua

Research Fellow at the Institute of Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Studies at Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Kinyua holds a PhD in Global Studies, with a research focus on decentralization, rural livelihoods, and African youth engagement with digital platforms. His recent work investigates how digital spaces facilitate political participation and resource mobilization among rural communities. Recent publications include “Digital Spaces and Democratization in Rural Africa: Participation, Mobilization, and Laying Claim to Resources” in the (2023) and “Decoding Political Discourse on Digital Platforms in Africa: Rumor Networks Among Rural Populace in Kenya’s 2022 Elections” in (2023).

Yoichi Mine

Professor at the Graduate School of Global Studies, Doshisha University, Japan, and Executive Director, JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development. His research interests include human security, international development, and African area study. He is the author of (Routledge, 2022) and has edited six books in English, including (Palgrave, 2018) and (Palgrave, 2013). The English version of his book, (The University of Tokyo Press, 2023) will be published by Springer in 2025.