The Limits of Governmentality: Call-in Radio and the Subversion of Neoliberal Evangelism in Zambia

Fraser, Alastair

Abstract

The spread of mobile telephones in Africa has enabled a broad range of citizens to join live conversations on call-in radio shows. Both African governments and foreign aid agencies claim that broadcasting such debates can raise awareness, amplify the voices of the poor, and facilitate development and better governance; they now fund a large share of interactive shows in some countries. Critics of such participatory initiatives typically accept that they have powerful effects but worry that debates among citizens are deployed as a technology of “governmentality”, producing forms of popular subjectivity compatible with elitist economic systems and technocratic political regimes. This article argues that instrumentalising political debate is harder than either side assumes, and that the consequences of these shows are mainly unintended. It develops an in-depth case of a Zambian call-in radio programme, “Let’s Be Responsible Citizens”, emphasising the ability of the show’s audience, and its host, to subvert the programme’s surveillance and governmentality agenda, and to insist that the key responsibilities of citizens are to criticise, rather than adapt to, policies and systems of governance that do not meet their needs.

Citation

Fraser, A. (2024). The Limits of Governmentality: Call-in Radio and the Subversion of Neoliberal Evangelism in Zambia. Journal of African Cultural Studies, 36(1), 41-57. https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2023.2283179

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 9, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Nov 24, 2023
• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2024
• Deposit Date: Nov 29, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 29, 2023
• Journal: Journal of African Cultural Studies
• Print ISSN: 1369-6815
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-9346
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 36
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 41-57
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2023.2283179
• Keywords: Radio; call-in; interactivity; governmentality; social accountability
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13696815.2023.2283179