Business and Social Crisis in Africa

Based on fieldwork in four African countries, this study reveals how African businesses can be key responders to wider social and political crises.

Antoinette Handley (Author)

9781108445030, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 November 2019

230 pages, 13 b/w illus. 9 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.1 cm, 0.38 kg

'Is business socially responsible in Africa? That is the fundamental question Handley (Univ. of Toronto) attempts to answer in this innovative and carefully researched study.' R. I. Rotberg, Choice

Much of the time, when confronted with a crisis of national dimensions, businesses do exactly what we expect them to do: they look to their own survival. Occasionally, however, firms in some contexts go beyond this. Based on qualitative, country-based fieldwork in Eastern and Southern Africa, Antoinette Handley examines how African businesses can be key responders to wider social and political crises, often responding well in advance of the state. She reveals the surprising ways in which business responses can be focused, not on short-term profits, but instead on ways that assist society in resolving that crisis in the long term. Taking African businesses in Kenya, Uganda, Botswana and South Africa as case studies, this detailed exploration of the private sector response to crises, including HIV/AIDS and political violence crises, introduces the concept of relative business autonomy, exploring the conditions under which it can emerge and develop, when and how it may decline, and how it might contribute to a higher level of overall societal resilience.

1. Doing business like a state: the response to social crisis
Part I. Business, HIV/AIDS and the Provision of Public Health: 2. Not our business: HIV/AIDS in Kenya and Uganda
3. Healthy responses: HIV/AIDS in South Africa and Botswana
Part II. Business, Political Crisis and the Provision of Broader Social Stability: 4. The business of business is politics: political and electoral violence in South Africa and Kenya
5. Business interests and the broader social good in the developing world.

Subject Areas: Employee-ownership & co-operatives [KJVW], Business ethics & social responsibility [KJG], Economic systems & structures [KCS], Health economics [KCQ], Political economy [KCP], Political science & theory [JPA]