‘Emerging powers, state capitalism and the oil sector in Africa’

The September 2014 edition of ‘Review of African Political Economy’ includes an article by Ian Taylor with the above title. “The global development landscape is rapidly changing with the acceleration of the economies of emerging countries and this has important implications for sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Notably, these emerging partners share a broad comparative advantage in their outward engagement. They are able to access large pools of finance and capital reserves and they also uphold a version of the Developmental State Model that encourages a statist approach to business. This state capitalism is increasingly coming to the fore, particularly in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and the evident intellectual collapse of neoliberalism as a sustainable economic model.”
(Review of African Political Economy)

Can Sub-Saharan Africa’s plural seed systems survive?

In this blogpost, Leonard Haggai reflects on last month’s ‘Regional Dialogue on Strengthening African Seed Systems’. It raises the question as to whether informal seed production systems and their access to markets will survive as business and political interests grow around formal seed systems.
(Future Agricultures)

ASAUK conference 2014 in Sussex

The African Studies Association UK biennial conference is to be held at the University of Sussex this year from Tuesday 9 Sept until Thursday 11 Sept. A full programme of events and speakers can be found on the ASAUK website. A debate on Zimbabwe’s land reforms will be chaired by CBAA theme convenor Ian Scoones.
(African Studies Association)

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