{"product_id":"underdevelopment-and-african-literature","title":"Underdevelopment and African Literature","description":"\u003cp\u003ePeople looking for works in cities are immersed in English as the lingua franca of the mobile phone and the urban hustle – more effective instigations to reading than decades of work by traditional publishers and development agencies. The legal publishing industry campaigns to convince people to scorn pirates and plagiarists as a criminal underclass, and to instead purchase copyrighted, barcoded works that have the look of legitimacy about them. They work with development industry officials to 'foster literacy' – meaning to grow the legal book trade as a contributor to national economic health, and police what and how the newly literate read. But harried cash-strapped audiences will read what and how they can, often outside of formal economies, and are increasingly turning to mobile phone platforms that sell texts at a fraction of the price of legally printed books.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cambridge University Press Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56669793190274,"sku":"9781108713788","price":14.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0475\/2031\/7597\/files\/9781108713788i.jpg?v=1779713616","url":"https:\/\/www.cambridgebookshop.co.uk\/products\/underdevelopment-and-african-literature","provider":"Cambridge University Press Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}