W.M.J. van Binsbergen (Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands)
Submitted: Tues, April 26, 2011
Professor W.M.J. van Binsbergen
Afrika-Studiecentrum
Leiden University
P.O. Box 9555
2300 RB
Leiden
The Netherlands
phone: +31-71-5271946
e-mail: binsbergen@ascleiden.nl
Web site: http://www.shikanda.net/general/index.htm
Current research:
He is presently working on the theory and method of research on cultural
globalisation especially in connection with virtuality, Information and
Communication Technology, ethnicity and religion. Another of his projects,
on 'Africa.s Contribution to Global Systems of Knowledge: An Epistemology
for African Studies in the Twenty-First Century', provides a link between
his research at the ASC and his chair in Foundations of Intercultural
Philosophy at Erasmus University, Rotterdam.
Dr. van Binsbergen is also a qualified traditional healer, who has practiced
Southern African traditional healing with individual patients both in the
region and in the North Atlantic region.
Publications -- Selected Books and Articles:
"Expressions of traditional wisdom from Africa and beyond: an exploration
in intercultural epistemology" In: Classes des Sciences morales et
politiques, Mémoire in-8, Nouvelle Série, vol. 53, fasc. 4
Bruxelles: Academie Royale des Sciences d'Outre-mer, 2009.
"Rupture and fusion in the approach to myth: situating myth analysis
between philosophy, poetics and long-range historical reconstruction"
In: Religion Compass, vol. 3 no. 1, pp. 1-34, 2009.
"Expressions of traditional wisdom: what Africa can teach the world today"
In: Bulletin des Séances de l'Académie Royale des Sciences
d'Outre-Mer, pp. 281-305, 2009.
"The continuity of African and Eurasian mythologies: general theoretical
models, and detailed comparative discussion of the case of Nkoya mythology
from Zambia, South Central Africa" In: New perspectives on myth:
proceedings of the Second Annual Conference of the International
Association for Comparative Mythology, Ravenstein (the Netherlands), 19-21
August, 2008, Papers in Intercultural Philosophy and Transcontinental
Comparative Studies, Haarlem, pp. 143-223, 2010.
"Preface" and "Introduction" (with E. Venbrux) In: New perspectives on
myth: proceedings of the Second Annual Conference of the International
Association for Comparative Mythology, Ravenstein (the Netherlands), 19-21
August, 2008, Papers in Intercultural Philosophy and Transcontinental
Comparative Studies, Haarlem, pp. 17-21, 2010.
With C. Tagou
"Africa's splendid social technology of reconciliation, and the political
sociology of its under-utilisation at the national and international
level'" In: The Dynamics of conflict, peace and development in
African societies: from local to international, Yaoundé,
Presses des Universités Protestantes d'Afrique, pp. 63-120, 2010.
"'An incomprehensible miracle' - Central African clerical intellectualism
versus African historic religion: A close reading of Valentin Mudimbe's
Tales of Faith" In: Journal of African cultural studies, vol. 17, no. 1,
pp. 11-65, 2006.
With P. L. Geschiere
Commodification. Things, Agency, and Identities (The Social Life of
Things Revisted). Münster: Lit Verlag, 2005.
"Aspects of democracy and democratization in Zambia and Botswana"
In: T. Young (ed.) Readings in African Politics, London:
International Africa Institute in cooperation with Indiana University
Press and James Currey, pp. 202-214, 2004.
"Can ICT belong in Africa, or is it owned by the North Atlantic Region?"
In: W.M.J. van Binsbergen ; R.A. van Dijk ; J.B. Gewald (eds.)
Situating globality : African agency in the appropriation of global
culture, Leiden: Brill, pp. 107-146, 2004.
"Challenges for the sociology of religion in the African context:
prospects for the next 50 years" In: Social compass, vol. 51, no. 1,
pp. 85-98, 2004.
Tears of Rain. Ethnicity and History in Central Western Zambia.
London and New York: Kegan Paul International, 1992, 2000.
Richard Fardon, Wim van Binsbergen and Rijk van Dijk (eds.)
Modernity on a Shoestring. Dimensions of Globalization, Consumption
and Development in Africa and Beyond. London / Leiden: EIDOS / ASC /
CAS, 1999.
"Mary's room: A case study on becoming a consumer in Francistown,
Botswana." In: R. Fardon et al. (eds.) Modernity on a Shoestring.
Dimensions of Globalization, Consumption and Development in Africa and
Beyond, pp 179-206, London / Leiden: EIDOS / ASC / CAS, 1999.
[ Keywords: The Nkoya of Zambia ; Urban Culture in Francistown, Botswana ;
Ethnicity in Central West Zambia ; African epistemologies and
globalization ; Ubuntu: ways of being human in southern Africa today ;
African traditional medicine and globalization. ]