Events
Uneven Development and Political Cleavage in Africa: Regional Tensions Around New Growth Models
Speaker: Catherine Boone (LSE) This talk draws upon Inequality and Political Cleavage in Africa (Cambridge, 2024) to trace the roots of strong regionalism within African countries, arguing that this arises from both inequalities rooted in economic geography and the structure of political institutions. In many African countries, we see forms o..
A Political Epistemology of International Development
Speaker: David Ludwig (Wageningen) The colonial myth of a “civilizing mission” is built on imagining the colonized as ignorant and in need of education by colonial knowledge holders. Even after the collapse of European empires, international development maintained many of these epistemic hierarchies, treating local communities as passive..
Book Launch: Syndicates and Societies: Criminal Politics in Dhaka
Join GDI’s State-Society Relations Group for a panel discussion celebrating the launch of David Jackman’s new book, Syndicates and Societies: Criminal Politics in Dhaka (Cambridge University Press). Based on years of research, the book reveals how syndicates shape life in Kawran Bazar, the largest marketplace in Bangladesh, and offers a ne..
From Development to Democracy: The Transformations of Modern Asia
Speakers: Dan Slater (Michigan) and Joe Wong (Toronto) Over the past century, Asia has been transformed by rapid economic growth, industrialization, and urbanization—a spectacular record of development that has turned one of the world’s poorest regions into one of its richest. Yet Asia’s record of democratization has been uneven, despit..
Dams, Power and the Politics of Ethiopia’s Renaissance
Speaker: Tom Lavers (GDI) After more than a decade, Ethiopia is filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a controversial dam with the potential to transform the hydrology and politics of the Nile Basin. The GERD is the culmination of a dam-building boom carried out over three decades and a key pillar of the Ethiopian Peoples’ Rev..