Economy, Environment and Exploitation

Summary
The EEE research programme ‘The Political Economy of Poverty and Wealth in Africa’ aims to arrive at a critical and integrated analysis of processes of impoverishment and accumulation in African societies. The central question of the programme is how the process of continued commoditization in Africa and the related changes in social relations of production do affect people’s access to resources and the institutions and relations through which these resources are provided, and how does this, in turn, define their constraints and opportunities for wealth accumulation. From a political economy perspective the programme seeks to investigate development trajectories in various African societies, the role of markets in these trajectories, and the role of water as the most crucial natural resource in Africa besides land. The programme includes case studies on selected countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda) and commodities and products (among others, coffee, horticultural products, food, financial services, land and water). Transformations in societies and markets will be associated with the changing social and political relationships between African people and those in the OECD countries.

Sub programmes (each sub programme consists of several research projects):
1. Towards an integrated understanding of (African) development theories
2. The political economy of market development and integration
3. The political economy of access to natural resources

Main text research programme

History of the research group

ASC Researchers:
Akinyinka Akinyoade, Marleen Dekker, Jan-Kees van Donge, Dick Foeken, Wijnand Klaver, André Leliveld, Marcel Rutten

Head of the theme group: André Leliveld

Associated Members: Jan Cappon, Jan Hoorweg, Samuel O. Owuor (University of Nairobi), John Sender (School of Oriental and African Studies), Marja Spierenburg (Free University, Amsterdam), Harry Wels (Free University, Amsterdam)

PhD's: Marion Eeckhout, Romborah Simiyu, Martin van Vliet

Collaborating Institutes: University of Nairobi (Kenya), Moi University (Kenya), School of Oriental and African Studies (London), World Resources Institute (Washington, DC), Centre for Basic Research (Uganda)