Introduction

This chapter explores the problem of conceptualising the notion of the state in Africa. Instead of viewing the state in Africa as merely mimetic of the Western model or as an extension of precolonial forms of social organisation, it focuses on the everyday and ongoing governance practices that produce it as a seemingly autonomous entity but also embed it socially. In so doing, it develops four concepts – governance, bureaucracy, development, and discourse – for studying the everyday production and reification of state power in Ethiopia. Such an approach, I argue, illuminates the social character of state power, while at the same time offering a detailed description of the everyday lives of local communities. Moreover, this chapter introduces the fields of the research (located in West Gojjam Zone of Amhara regional state and in the Borana Zone of Oromia regional state) and presents the methodology of the study.