Projekt

Processes of globalization are transforming the material, social, religious, and interpersonal influences of everyday life in Ghana. Materially, there is an ever increasing demand for western consumer goods, the possession of which is deemed a sign of success. At the same time, there is a widening inequality gap and there are concerns that current economic benefits are not being fairly distributed. Amid the unequal distribution of wealth, there is a growing popularization of messages of individual prosperity often sanctioned by charismatic churches. These messages encourage an independent sense of self, while ignoring the social, cultural, and economic realities that the Ghanaian setting affords. Practices of charismatic churches may afford a different experience of self, agency, and relationality. The existence of a wide inequality gap and an increasing focus on an abstracted sense of self in Ghana's development could have enormous systemic implications for a society that is organized around embedded interdependence. There is a potential to increase the drive towards self and social protection for the wealthy. However, there could be the undesirable consequence on decisions and attitudes towards mutual obligations towards wider kinship groups. This project examines how engagement in practices of charismatic Christianity influence self-development and self-expression; and assesses how charismatic Christianity impacts (1) patterns of care, and conceptions of love, especially as they concern resolution of conflicting obligations to (a) nuclear family and (b) family of birth; and (2) attitudes and decisions regarding (i) distribution of resources; and (ii) moral cognition.

• Prof. Dr. Mamadou Diawara

  Universität Frankfurt am Main
  Zentrum für interdisziplinäre
  Afrikaforschung (ZIAF)
  Campus Westend
  Frankfurt am Main
  

• Dr. Annabella Osei-Tutu

  University of Ghana
  Department of Psychology
  Accra
  Ghana
  

• My Own House, Car, My Husband, and Children : Meanings of Success among Ghanaian Christians