An essential volume. For scholars of Africa, several of the contributors and perspectives may well be familiar (more than half of the book's contributors are professors, who have published widely), but the gathering of critical perspectives offers a rare opportunity to take stock of what James Ferguson calls a shared intellectual sensibility (Foreword, p. xvii). For those who ... Read moreare not so familiar with African research, or who may want to move beyond policy approaches, this book is a formidable place to start. AFRICA AT LSE BLOG This book is an important and stimulating addition to African Studies and, indeed, as emphasized by Jane Guyer and many of the contributors, also to social theory, especially social theory of economic life. AFRICAN STUDIES REVIEW The text is enriched by sound theoretical discussions and by intellectual excursions into the colonial and contemporary era in Nigeria, German Kamerun, apartheid and contemporary South Africa, and, in the case of Mali and its environs, by insights into the formidable challenges posed by ethnocentric mediation and interpretation. Recommended. CHOICE Show Less