Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the conceptual division of state and society, as well as the implications of community participation and governance, within community schools in Zambia, where villages are encouraged to build, manage, and staff their own schools in the absence of government provision.

Paper long abstract:

In Zambia, community schools have grown rapidly in the past two decades, representing a dramatic shift in how state and society are conceptualized in the field of education. These schools, built and managed by local villages and staffed by volunteer teachers, tap into historic notions of community self-help but have been rationalized into a model of liberalization of social services which seeks to "decenter" the state, and the radical democratic but also neoliberal concept of local participation in development. To date, nearly one fifth of all primary school students in the country attend community schools; in many ways, government and community schools constitute parallel systems which do not strictly follow but speak to an urban/rural divide across cities, towns, and villages.

This paper is a historical and contemporary look at the how the Zambian state has approached, managed, and governed community schools, drawing on political sociological theory of the state and governance. It seeks to explore how the provision of education has shaped the construction of state and society within Zambia, particularly in rural and remote areas where these schools are prominent. By maintaining a division between state and society, and calling on community involvement while utilizing tactics of registration and inspection, the Zambian state has maintained its authority over the provision of education while at the same time outsourcing the creation and management of schools to local communities. This paper is drawn from a dissertation of the same topic.