A Man Among Other Men - by Jordanna C Matlon (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This book examines constructions of masculinity among men in the informal economy of Abidjan, Cãote d'Ivoire. It demonstrates how French colonial legacies and global media representations of Blackness anchor identity and value within labor, consumerism, and commodification" --

Book Synopsis

Award winner book of the ASA Distinguished Scholarly Book Award, the Lee Ann Fujii Book Award, Paul Sweezy Outstanding Book Award, ISA Global Development Studies Best Book, ASA Viviana Zelizer Best Book Award, co-winner of the ISA John Ruggie Annual Best Book Award, and co-winner of the Society for the Study of Social Problems Global Division Book Award.

A Man among Other Men examines competing constructions of modern manhood in the West African metropolis of Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. Engaging the histories, representational repertoires, and performative identities of men in Abidjan and across the Black Atlantic, Jordanna Matlon shows how French colonial legacies and media tropes of Blackness act as powerful axes, rooting masculine identity and value within labor, consumerism, and commodification.

Through a broad chronological and transatlantic scope that culminates in a deep ethnography of the livelihoods and lifestyles of men in Abidjan's informal economy, Matlon demonstrates how men's subjectivities are formed in dialectical tension by and through hegemonic ideologies of race and patriarchy. A Man among Other Men provides a theoretically innovative, historically grounded, and empirically rich account of Black masculinity that illuminates the sustained power of imaginaries even as capitalism affords a deficit of material opportunities. Revealed is a story of Black abjection set against the anticipation of male privilege, a story of the long crisis of Black masculinity in racial capitalism.

This book has received honorable mentions by the African Studies Association Best Book Prize, by the American Anthropological Association Society for the Anthropology of Work Best Book, and multiple honorable mentions by the American Sociological Association (Sociology of Development Section; Race, Gender, and Class Section; and Sociology of Sex and Gender Section).

Review Quotes

Jordanna Matlon's A Man Among Other Men: The Crisis of Black Masculinity in Racial Capitalism, offers a deeply sobering yet impressive theoretical, historical, and ethnographic account of the complicities of marginalized men in Abidjan with the capitalist structures that render them exploitable, commodifiable, and dependable consumers.

-- "Perspectives"

A Man Among Other Men tells a complex and multilayered story.

-- "Gender and Society"

Every once in a while, a book comes along that significantly reorients the analytics of critical social science, taking scholars out of their comfort zones and provoking nuanced, unintuitive analyses of consent, power, and agency. This is one such book. A Man among Other Men is a transhistorical, ethnographic, and auto-ethnographic look at gendered racial capitalism in West Africa. It resonates in any context in which capital value has advanced through racial and gender hierarchies and norms, which is virtually everywhere.

-- "Antipode"

In A Man among Other Men, Jordanna Matlon combines critical historical analysis with a rich ethnographic investigation of young meninAbidjan, Côted'Ivoire.

-- "Journal of Anthropological Research"

While Matlon provides plenty of astute analysis in the ethnographic chapters, the foundation is so carefully laid that the connections between the men's narratives and the larger forces at work appear to almost emerge from the text.

-- "Socio-Economic Review"

A Man Among Other Men: The Crisis of Black Masculinity in Racial Capitalism is an excellent read for many reasons; chief among them, is the comprehensive historical glimpse into what constitutes a Black man. This book presents a well-reasoned, and highly generalizable logic of the crisis of Black masculinity.

-- "Ethnic and Racial Studies"

About the Author

Jordanna Matlon is Assistant Professor in the School of International Service at American University.