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Abstracts and Bios

Globalisation and the Challenges of Glocalisation in Nigeria: Revisiting Hybridity

Mike Adeyeye, Department of Local Government Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria
madeyeye2002@yahoo.com

Recent work has suggested that the discontent over perceived negative impacts arising from globalisation need to be more carefully considered. The critiques emanating from local government failure to provoke good governance in Nigeria are strident; and that the system needs to be strengthened is a moot point. The dilemma has always been the way and manner to synthesise the traditional African model with the Western formal model. In discourses on governance in Africa, the terms ‘globalisation’ and ‘glocalisation’ are increasingly used, but are also difficult to conceptually concretised. Underlying both trends is a single force: the empowerment of individuals and communities at the expense of the monolithic nation state. This paper examines the challenges that confound local communities as a result of global dynamics, while acknowledging the challenges that glocalisation as a rapidly evolving concept can offer. Paradoxically, glocalisation is found to be an instance of populist reaction to the changes and inequalities generated by capitalist industrialisation. Glocalisation, it is assumed, improves the voice, participation and prosperity of individuals and communities. Relatedly, one of the most disputed terms in postcolonial studies, ‘hybridity' commonly refers to “the creation of new transcultural forms within the contact zone produced by colonisation.” Hybridisation takes many forms including cultural, political and linguistic. Contextually, the paper argues that hybridity and change are permanent features of governmental structures and processes. Significantly, the paper analyses the way in which the interface between globalisation and glocalisation is impacting on local governance in Nigeria, and concludes that, embracing the hybridised nature of western and indigenous processes of governance could steer us away from the problematic binarism that have until now framed our notions of local government.