Abstract:
The dissertation documents distinct elements of the social and historical contexts of Bolivia and Ghana, focusing on underpinnings of differences in political behaviour of the subalterns in an era of neo-liberalism. Unlike their Bolivian counterparts, Ghanaians have not independently resisted the free market policies of a neo-liberal state. The key finding is that a materialist framework of agency in anti-neoliberalism literature does not capture the complexity of subaltern agency and their contradictory political behaviour in the way that a social-historical framework does. In critical theory the term subaltern designates the populations who are outside the hegemonic power structure of the colony.
