A Responsibility to Build: The Political and Moral Economy of Quality in Addis Ababa's Construction Boom
The coexistence of international companies and a growing domestic construction industry has not been without frictions in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. By exploring the political and moral economy of corporate narratives on quality, this paper will document the struggles that domestic contractors wage to keep themselves afloat in a competitive business environment. I show how quality is neither about the technical or social sustainability of the final product nor promoting justice and inclusion in the construction sector. Quality is pursued as revolving around the internal managerial processes that corporate actors should follow to make decisions, deal with their projects’ financial and time constraints, and importantly, project themselves as competent and viable to their clients, and in particular to the state. Under the impact of quality management procedures and ISO certifications, domestic contractors have become more competitive. Yet, they have also further delimited the realm of their responsibility to a fundamental categorical imperative: to keep on building.
Date: 2 February 2023, 15:30 (Thursday, 3rd week, Hilary 2023)
Venue: 13 Bevington Road, 13 Bevington Road OX2 6NB
Venue Details: Kirk-Greene Seminar Room
Speaker: Marco Di Nunzio (University of Birmingham)
Organiser: African Studies Centre (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: events@africa.ox.ac.uk
Part of: African Studies Seminar Series
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editors: Amy Crane, Adrita Mitra