Apl. Prof. Dr. Ute Röschenthaler

Außerplanmäßige Professorin

Illustration

Thematische Schwerpunkte
Kulturelle Mobilität, Handelsnetze im globalen Süden, afrikanisches Unternehmertum, Wirtschaftsethnologie, Produktgeschichten, Erinnerungskultur, Medien und Werbung, Feldforschung/Ethnografie
Regionale Schwerpunkte
Afrika, Westafrika, insbesondere Kamerun, Nigeria, Mali; Afrikaner in Südostasien

 

African traders’ agency on global cloth markets

Research project, funded by the German Research Foundation (DGF), 2022-2025.

In a comparative study on West and Central African countries, the project explores the important contribution of African actors in supplying West African markets with cloth and dress. It examines what is behind the great variety of cloth and styles that consumers use to communicate complex messages through the interplay of quality, form, colour and pattern. Dress expresses multiple belongings such as age, sex, religion, origin and class. Scholarship on clothing discusses dress practices, the agency of consumers in styling the dressed body, and the repercussions of globalization on local artisanal production. Many of them understand the changing cloth supply and dress practices as shaped by external influences such as European colonization, missionary education, global flows and the influx of cheap Asian products. Less explored is the agency of African cloth traders who decide to a great extent what fabrics and clothing African markets offer to their consumers. The project explores the trade routes of fabrics and the agency through which they arrive on African markets. It studies the distinctive features that cloth and dress are required to have, their material, quality, colour and pattern in order to meet consumers’ expectations. It also examines how importers and traders acquire “cloth knowledge” to be able to anticipate consumers’ desires and expectations in times of quickly changing fashions.

CEDITRAA

Principal Investigator in the collaborative project Cultural Entrepreneurship and digital Transformation in Africa and Asia (CEDITRAA), funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

CEDITRAA – Cultural Entrepreneurship and Digital Transformation in Africa and Asia

A History of Mali’s National Drink
African Agency in China’s Tea Trade
Brokers under scrutiny: investigating practices of intermediation in a globalising world

Projektmitarbeitende: Dr. des. Kathrin Knodel (GU Frankfurt), Ricardo Marquez (JGU Mainz)
Projektpartner: PD Dr. Birgit Bräuchler (Monash University Melbourne, Faculty of Arts)
Projektfinanzierung: DAAD (Personen-bezogener Projektaustausch, 2019-2021)

Mit Workshops at Monash University Melbourne, JGU Mainz und Konstanz (DGSKA)

Special Issue “Brokerage from Within”, Cultural Dynamics, vol. 33, no. 4. 2021.

Brokers under scrutiny: investigating practices of intermediation in a globalising world

www.virtualgreenteamuseum.de

This online exhibition introduces the rich West African tea culture of the Sahel countries, its history, material culture, ceremony and meanings, and above all to its colourfully-designed tea packages.

www.virtualgreenteamuseum.de

Mobility between Africa, Asia and Latin America

Röschenthaler, Ute and Alessandro Jedlowski eds. 2017. Mobility between Africa, Asia and Latin America: Economic networks, cultural interaction and aspirations of success. London: Zed Books  ...

Copyright Africa

Röschenthaler, Ute und Mamadou Diawara (Hg.). 2016. Copyright Africa: How Intellectual Property, Media and Markets Transform Immaterial Cultural Goods. Canon Pyon: Sean Kingston Publishing (Paperback 2019).

Cultural Entrepreneurship in Africa

Röschenthaler, Ute und Dorothea Schulz (Hg.). 2016. Cultural Entrepreneurship in Africa. (Hg. mit Dorothea Schulz). London: Routledge (Paperback 2019).

Competing Norms

Diawara, Mamadou und Ute Röschenthaler (Hg.). 2016. Competing Norms: State Regulations and Local Practice (ed. with Mamadou Diawara). Frankfurt: Campus (Praktiken der Kritik Bd. 17). Französische Übersetzung: Normes étatiques et pratiques locales en afrique subsaharienne: entre affrontement et accomodement. Paris: Èditions Manucius 2019.

Purchasing Culture

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2011. Purchasing Culture: The Dissemination of Associations in the Cross River Region of Cameroon and Nigeria  ... 

Im Blick der Anderen

Diawara, Mamadou und Ute Röschenthaler (Hg.). 2008. Im Blick der Anderen. Auf ethnologischer Forschung in Mali. Frankfurt: Brandes & Apsel.

Im Schatten des Kongo

Ackermann, Andreas, Ute Röschenthaler und Peter Steigerwald (Hg.). 2005. Im Schatten des Kongo. Leo Frobenius. Stereofotografien von 1904-1906. Frankfurt/Main: Frobenius Institut.

Fotofieber

Schneider, Jürg, Ute Röschenthaler und Bernhard Gardi (Hg.). 2005. Fotofieber. Bilder aus West- und Zentralafrika. Die Reisen von Carl Passavant 1883-1885. Basel: Museum der Kulturen und Christoph Merian Verlag.

Cameroon’s Tycoon

Elizabeth Chilver und Ute Röschenthaler (Hg.). 2001. Cameroon’s Tycoon. Max Esser’s Expedition and its Consequences (kommentierte Übersetzung mit Beiträgen der Herausgeberinnen). Oxford: Berghahn.

Aktuelle Veröffentlichungen

Herausgeberschaften

Bräuchler, Birgit, Kathrin Knodel und Ute Röschenthaler. 2021. Special Issue: Brokerage from within. Cultural Dynamics 33, 4.

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2020. Special Issue “Small-scale entrepreneurship in Africa in times of crisis”. African Identities 3.

Ungruhe, Christian, Ute Röschenthaler und Mamadou Diawara 2019. Special Issue: “Working for Better Lives: Mobilities and Trajectories of young people in West and Central Africa”. Cadernos de Estudos Africanos 37.

Jedlowski, Alessandro und Ute Röschenthaler (eds). 2017. Special Issue: China-Africa Media Interactions. Journal of African Cultural Studies 29, 1.

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2015. Special Issue: Clothing, uniformity and performance. Africa 85, 4.

Alessandro Jedlowski, Patrick Oloko, Ute Röschenthaler und Ibrahima Wane. 2015. Special Issue: Remediation in Africa. Journal of African Media Studies 7, 1.

Artikel und Buchkapitel

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2021. Brokers in the Tea Trade between China and West Africa. Cultural Dynamics. Cultural Dynamics 33, 4: 401-417.

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2021. Hierarchies of value and Asian consumer goods in Cameroon. In: Mayke Kaag, Guive Khan-Mohammad und Stefan Schmid (Hg.). Destination Africa: Contemporary Africa as a Global Meeting Point. Leiden: Brill, 127-147.

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2021. Breweries in Ethiopia and the politicisation of beer (mit Getachew Senishaw). Brewery History 185: 19-40.

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2020. Original and fake, fake originals, or multiple degrees of quality? Chinese manufactured consumer goods on Cameroonian markets. In: Ruth Achenbach, Jan Beek, John Njenga Karugia, Rirhandu Mageza-Barthel, und Frank Schulze-Engler (Hg.). Afrasian Transformations: Transregional Perspectives on Development Cooperation, Social Mobility and Cultural Change. Leiden: Brill, 280-300.

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2020. Crisis and credit: Social and political challenges on the Malian tea market. African Identities 18, 3: 346-362.

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2020. Chinese Green Tea in Mali, Cultural Mobility and African Agency in the Global South. African and Asian Studies 19, 1-2: 133-156.

Diawara, Mamadou und Ute Röschenthaler. 2019. Introduction. Que font les gens quand l’État travaille? In: Ute Röschenthaler und Mamadou Diawara (Hg.). Normes étatiques et pratiques locales en afrique subsaharienne: entre affrontement et accomodement. Paris: Èditions Manucius, 11-24.

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2019. Liquid Traditions: Worlds of Drink‐taking in Africa. In: Konstanze N’Guessan and Mareike Späth (Hg.). Festschrift für Carola Lentz. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe, 167-184.

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2018. Global African Trading Diasporas: Case Studies from China and Malaysia. Migration and Diasporas: An Interdisciplinary Journal (Delhi) 1, 2: 32-53.

Röschenthaler, Ute und Alessandro Jedlowski. 2017. Landscapes of opportunity, mobility and entrepreneurial perspectives. In: Ute Röschenthaler und Alessandro Jedlowski (Hg.). Mobility between Africa, Asia and Latin America: Economic networks, cultural interaction and aspirations of success. London: Zed Books, 1-27.

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2017. African Businesses in Malaysia: “You just have to be smart” to survive. In: Ute Röschenthaler und Alessandro Jedlowski (Hg.). Mobility between Africa, Asia and Latin America: Economic networks, cultural interaction and aspirations of success. London: Zed Books, 156-180.

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2017. In Constant Search of Money to Survive: African Youths in Malaysia. In: Arndt Graf und Azirah Hashim (Hg.). Asian-African Encounters. Amsterdam University Press, 17-45.

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2017. The economic and cultural impact of Calabar on the Cross River region. In: David Imbua, Paul Lovejoy und Ivor Miller (Hg.). Calabar on the Cross River: Historical and Cultural Studies. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 155-177.

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2017. Copying, branding, and the ethical implications of rights in immaterial cultural goods. In: Nhamo Anthony Mhiripiri und Tendai Chari (Hg.). Media Law, Ethics, and Policy in the Digital Age. Hershey, Pennsylvania: IGI Global, 101-121.

Jedlowski, Alessandro und Ute Röschenthaler. 2017. China-Africa Media Interactions: Media and popular culture between business and state intervention. Introduction to the special Issue China-Africa Media Interactions. Journal of African Cultural Studies 29, 1: 1-10.

Diakon, Birama und Ute Röschenthaler. 2017. The Chinese Presence in the Malian Mediascape. Journal of African Cultural Studies 29, 1: 96-103.

Röschenthaler, Ute und Antoine Socpa. 2017. Facing the China challenge: Cameroonians between discontent and popular admiration. In: Young-Chan, Kim (Hg.). China and Africa: A new Paradigm of Global Business. London: Palgrave, 155-188.

Mamadou Diawara und Ute Röschenthaler. 2016. Introduction: What do people do when states are working? In: Mamadou Diawara und Ute Röschenthaler (Hg.). Competing Norms: State Regulations and Local Practice. Frankfurt: Campus, 9-22.

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2016. Aspiring to be praised with many names: a media entrepreneur in Mali. In: Ute Röschenthaler und Dorothea Schulz (Hg.). Cultural Entrepreneurship in Africa. London: Routledge, 224-244.

Röschenthaler, Ute and Dorothea Schulz. 2016. Introduction: Forging Fortunes: New Perspectives on Entrepreneurial Activities in Africa. In: Ute Röschenthaler und Dorothea Schulz (Hg.). Cultural Entrepreneurship in Africa. London: Routledge, 1-15.

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2016. ‘Be Faster than the Pirates’: Copyright and the Revival of ‘Traditional Dances’ in Southwest Cameroon. In: Ute Röschenthaler und Mamadou Diawara (Hg.). Copyright Africa: How Intellectual Property, Media and Markets Transform Immaterial Cultural Goods. Canon Pyon: Sean Kingston Publishing, 177-213.

Röschenthaler, Ute und Mamadou Diawara. 2016. Introduction: African Intellectual Worlds in the Making. In: Ute Röschenthaler und Mamadou Diawara (Hg.). Copyright Africa: How Intellectual Property, Media and Markets Transform Immaterial Cultural Goods. Canon Pyon: Sean Kingston Publishing, 1-34.

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2016. Good quality or low price? Competition between Cameroonian and Chinese traders. African East-Asian Affairs (Stellenbosch) 1: 32-65.

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2015, Introduction: United in dress: negotiating gender and hierarchy with festival uniforms. Africa 85, 4: 627-633.

Röschenthaler, Ute. 2015. Dressed in Photographs: Between Uniformization, Self-enhancement and the Promotion of Stars and Leaders in Bamako. Africa 85, 4: 696-720.

Jedlowski, Alessandro, Patrick Oloko, Ute Röschenthaler und Ibrahima Wane. 2015. Across media: mobility and transformation of cultural materials in the digital age (introduction to special issue). Journal of African Media Studies 7, 1: 3-9.