Project description
How African societies form part of a growing scholarship
Bringing together the history of science, knowledge and economics, the EU-funded Making in W-Africa project will challenge Eurocentric notions of innovation and technology. It will shed light on the broader context and history. Specifically, the project will focus on artisans and craftspeople (goldsmiths, bakers and carpenters) in Ghana and Nigeria between 1920 and 1980, and provide a new history of ‘making things’. By moving beyond a reductive focus on capital accumulation, the project will provide a new and historically situated account of people’s engagement with technologies. It will also highlight the broad range of agency animating entrepreneurial activity, and reveal the ways in which African societies form part of a growing scholarship.
Objective
This project studies artisans and craftspeople (goldsmiths, bakers, and carpenters) in Ghana and Nigeria, c. 1920-1980, and provides a new history of ‘making things’, by bringing together the history of science and knowledge with economic history. This project makes a critical intervention as it illuminates the broader context and history of entrepreneurial activity and moves beyond a reductive focus on capital accumulation: it provides a new, and historically situated account of people’s engagement with technologies, and highlights the broad range of agency animating entrepreneurial activity. Utilising archival documents, personal papers, oral history, digital humanities and workshops, it elucidates various modes of making, trajectories of craft specialisation, experiences of making and analyses gendered epistemologies of making. The proposed project challenges Eurocentric notions of innovation and technology, brings to light West Africans individual and collective bodies of knowledge of how to engage with adverse colonial and post-colonial economic contexts, and thus helpfully complicates the ways in which African societies form part of growing scholarship on the global history of capitalism and science and knowledge.
The project will be carried out in Nigeria, with a secondment in The Netherlands and a return phase in Austria. The ER will learn from leading experts in the history of science and knowledge and economic history, and will acquire skills in oral history and digital humanities. Encompassing publications, an international, interdisciplinary conference, workshops with research participants, inter-sectoral collaboration, teaching activities, continuous public engagement and podcasts, this project is designed to ensure a mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge between the researcher, the host institution, and the partner institution, between European institutions, and to engage a wider public in both the partner and host country.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities philosophy, ethics and religion philosophy epistemology
- humanities history and archaeology history
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.3.6. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Europe In A Changing World - Inclusive, Innovative And Reflective Societies
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
8010 Graz
Austria
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.