Learning Morality, Inequalities, and Faith

Reviews / Votes

'A timely and critical analysis of inequality, politics, and power in Tanzania. Dilger shows how religiously diverse discursive and social practices are constructed and reconstructed through specific material conditions which disproportionately position educational institutions in relation to their faith.' Thomas Ndaluka, University of Dar es Salaam 'A powerful analysis of religion and education in Tanzania. Dilger's insightful and sensitive handling of a rich range of sources is impressive. This is an important contribution to our understanding of the intersection of schools and states, markets and inequalities.' Amy Stambach, University of Wisconsin, Madison 'Focusing primarily on Tanzania (although the reflections and data could be extended to many multi-religious societies), this is a brilliant and novel approach to the study and understanding of Religious Education in Africa. Scholars, researchers, and laypersons who want to engage with the place of religion in the education market under (post-)neoliberal conditions have a well-researched, accessibly written source in Dilger's work. This book is a foremost contribution to the debate on and understanding of how religion works in educational development and how education works in religious development.' Asonzeh Ukah, University of Cape Town 'Fee-paying faith-oriented schools are playing an increasingly important role for education provision in a wider context of growing inequalities and neoliberal politics. Exploring Christian and Muslim schools in Tanzania from a comparative perspective, Dilger expertly addresses timely questions about how the quest for moral becoming and the marketization of education intertwine. His book is thoughtful, sensitive, and richly detailed - a compelling read with much to offer to anyone interested in religion, morality, inequality, and education.' Hannah Hoechner, University of East Anglia 'This book will clearly have an important influence on future research concerning morality, inequality, and education - and particularly among scholars whose work focuses on religion and/or African contexts. Yet the book's influence may not be confined to university campuses, as Dilger himself seems to anticipate. Books have interesting lives, and this is particularly true in Dar es Salaam where a number of scholarly monographs on matters of religion and uneven patterns of development in Tanzania have, sometimes years after their publication, been swept up into ongoing debates concerning Muslim marginalisation that take place in the city's ordinary streets and houses on a daily basis. There is every chance that Dilger's book will join them.' Benjamin Kirby, Anthropology Book Forum 'Learning Morality, Inequalities, and Faith: Christian and Muslim Schools in Tanzania is a well written and accessible book that builds on solid ethnography and carefully situates ethnographic findings within historical, structural, and political contexts ... The book is an important contribution to our understanding of the complex intersection of religion, education, and social inequality in Africa and possibly beyond. Since the book addresses a variety of themes - the formation of ethical subjects, schooling and the liberalization of education, religion, politics of Muslim-Christian coexistence in Africa - it will be of interest to a broad readership.' Martin Lindhardt, Journal of Religion in Africa 'Learning Morality, Inequalities, and Faith is a versatile piece of scholarship. Throughout the book I found no trace of overgeneralization. Dilger is a stickler for objectivity. The author must be commended not only for his nuanced knowledge of Kiswahili but also for his refined finesse in rendering Kiswahili discussions into English. It is a book worth reading.' Hamza Mustafa Njozi, Utafiti Journal 'Dilger combines ethnographic depth with rich theoretical discussion to produce a novel and insightful analysis of the connection between 'the quest for a good life,' education, and religion in a religiously diverse African city, where colonial and post-independence forces have shaped contemporary socio-economic inequalities and other factors influencing the educational sector. He demonstrates what he terms the 'ordinarisation' of value frameworks of the religiously-oriented schools by their students and staff - that is, how the schools' values were learned, discussed, embodied, and expressed in the everyday lives of the pupils and teachers in fluid, non-conscious, and at times intentional manners, as they sought a 'good' life (12) ... This text is recommended for students, teachers, researchers, and leaders interested in religion and education, Christian-Muslim relations, and the public role of religion in Tanzania, Africa, and beyond.' Emmanuel Chiwetalu Ossai, Reading Religion 'The book makes a major contribution to developing a comparative analytical approach to the study of religious diversity. ... This is a rich study, grounded in relevant theories and illustrated with vibrant examples. The book will become an important reference for policymakers and development workers, in addition to students and scholars of the anthropology of education, religious pluralism, faith-based development, and urban transformation in Africa.' Mara A. Leichtman, Africa Today '... elegantly written, lucid, and intellectually enriching ... Dilger deserves an accolade for producing a magnum opus on the development of religion and education in urban Tanzania. Academics, researchers, and students in anthropology, history, development studies, education, and religious studies will find this book informative in advancing the frontiers of their academic and research agendas. ... The extensive fieldwork involving a collection of the voices and lived experiences of individuals, teachers, and leaders of the schools' administrations makes the work a most comprehensive, informative, detailed, thought-provoking, and intellectually engaging piece.' Salvatory S. Nyanto, Religion and Development '[This book] is a versatile piece of scholarship. Throughout the book I found no trace of overgeneralization. Dilger is a stickler for objectivity. The author must be commended not only for his nuanced knowledge of Kiswahili but also for his refined finesse in rendering Kiswahili discussions into English. It is a book worth reading.' Hamza Mustafa Njozi, Utafiti Journal of African Perspectives 'In this highly interesting and accessible book, anthropologist Hansjoerg Dilger explores how the rise of private, faith-oriented schools in Tanzania has affected these processes thereby also operating as a vector of modern secularity. ... Taking inspiration from Dilger's book, future research should seek to further connect the pressing issues of religious habitus and religious diversity to the thriving sociological debate on African middle classes and class-based aspirations.' Marian Burchardt, Journal of Modern African Studies 'With its profound insights into how ethical subjects and the 'good life'are always in formation in ordinary educational spaces, how these spaces are deeply entangled with the colonial past and capitalist present, and how young people are some of the most interesting conversation partner from whom we can learn about these processes, 'Learning Morality, Inequalities, and Faith' makes a unique contribution to the fields of the anthropology of ethics, political anthropology, the anthropology of childhood and youth, and Swahili Studies more broadly.' Franziska Fay, Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie / Journal of Social and Cultural Anthropology 'This is an exciting and original book, which provides detailed ethnographic material and speaks to a large number of important debates and constitutes an excellent resource for research and teaching in a range of fields. It is highly recommended reading for scholars of religion and education in Africa and beyond, and will undoubtedly also attract readers interested in Muslim-Christian relations, youth, and gender.' Insa Nolte, Religion 'Dilger's book makes a noteworthy contribution to the study of religions in Africa, highlighting the role religion plays in the pursuit of excellent modern education and the formation of individual and collective moral belonging in contemporary Tanzania. The book shows that religion is not an alternative and in opposition to secular formation, but that it forms an integral part of the processes of globalisation, neoliberalisation, modern education and urban transformation. The book demonstrates that religion in Africa is not merely a private act of piety and belief but a force of social morality and a collective sense of belonging and being in the world.' Ala Rabiha Alhourani, Anthropology Southern Africa