0312, 2016

The Global Crisis and the Disintegration of Neoliberalism

By Jo Tomkinson|December 3, 2016|Democracy, Neoliberalism|0 comments

Alfredo Saad Filho is Professor of Political Economy at the SOAS Department of Development Studies. His research interests include the political economy of neoliberalism, industrial policy, alternative macroeconomic policies, and the labour theory of value and its applications. The certainties that used to hold neoliberalism together are melting into the air: the common sense of the age has degenerated into clichés. Tried and tested policies such as privatisation, marketisation and trade

1210, 2016

Systems in Flux: Constitution-making, Patronage and Post-war Politics in Nepal and Sri Lanka

By Jo Tomkinson|October 12, 2016|Conflict, Democracy, Peace|0 comments

Jonathan Goodhand is Professor Conflict and Development Studies at the SOAS Department of Development Studies. His research focuses on the political economy of conflict, war to peace transitions and increasingly on the role of borderlands, with a particular focus on South and Central Asia. Oliver Walton is a Lecturer in International Development at the University of Bath in the Department of Social and Policy Sciences. His research focuses on NGOs, civil society

2909, 2016

Peace in Colombia – What is it good for?

By Jo Tomkinson|September 29, 2016|Conflict, Forced displacement, Neoliberalism, Peace|0 comments

Tobias Franz completed his PhD at SOAS on the political economy of local economic development and institutional change in Colombia and has taught in the SOAS Development Studies department. The joy of the international community and the mainstream press was overwhelming when, on August 24th, after 52 years (or 70, depending on the definition) of armed conflict the Colombian Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) announced a final

0707, 2016

When Human Trafficking Becomes a Weapon of War

By Jo Tomkinson|July 7, 2016|Conflict|0 comments

Emma Saville (MSc Violence, Conflict and Development 2014) is the Education Programme Manager at PositiveNegatives. Emma’s book, Human Trafficking as a Weapon of War: Sudan a Case Study, has recently been published. She tweets from @_EmmaSaville_. An estimated 35.8 million persons are thought to be currently enslaved worldwide. Human trafficking is a fundamental violation of human rights that has been referred to by some as a form of ‘modern-day slavery’ (see

1105, 2016

A Survey of Delhi Garment Workers Suggests Poverty Comes in Many Sizes

By Jo Tomkinson|May 11, 2016|Global commodity chains, Labour, Women's rights|3 comments

Alessandra Mezzadri is lecturer in Development Studies at SOAS, University of London. Her research interests focus on globalisation and processes of labour informalisation; materialist and feminist approaches to global commodity chains and global industrial systems; labour regimes, labour standards and CSR; gender and globalisation; and the political economy of India. Three years after Rana Plaza, garment workers worldwide still endure poor working conditions. The industry has witnessed several ‘minor’ disasters

2704, 2016

Reshaping the Debate on Land Alienation in Africa: What are the Origins of Social Change?

By Jo Tomkinson|April 27, 2016|Agriculture, Neoliberalism|2 comments

Matt Kandel is a Newton International Fellow in the Department of Development Studies at SOAS. One Monday afternoon last August I was seated underneath a large palm tree with my friend, Simon, in Soroti Town in rural eastern Uganda, both of us relaxing and seeking a minor respite from the equatorial African sun. The subject of our conversation was the weekend-long clan meeting that he and his family had organised

1404, 2016

Borderlands, Brokers and War to Peace Transitions in Nepal and Sri Lanka

By Jo Tomkinson|April 14, 2016|Borders, Conflict, Uncategorized|0 comments

Jonathan Goodhand is a Professor Conflict and Development Studies at the SOAS Department of Development Studies. His research focuses on the political economy of conflict, war to peace transitions and increasingly on the role of borderlands, with a particular focus on South and Central Asia. Oliver Walton is a Lecturer in International Development at the University of Bath in the Department of Social and Policy Sciences. His research focuses on

2303, 2016

Overthrowing Dilma Rousseff: It’s Class War, and Their Class is Winning

By Jo Tomkinson|March 23, 2016|Democracy, Neoliberalism|0 comments

Alfredo Saad Filho is Professor of Political Economy at the SOAS Department of Development Studies. His research interests include the political economy of neoliberalism, industrial policy, alternative macroeconomic policies, and the labour theory of value and its applications. The judicial coup against President Dilma Rousseff is the culmination of the deepest political crisis in Brazil for 50 years. Every so often, the bourgeois political system runs into crisis. The machinery of

0203, 2016

Workshopping Borders – Going Beyond the News Headlines

By Jo Tomkinson|March 2, 2016|Borders, Migration|0 comments

Paolo Novak is a lecturer in the SOAS Department of Development Studies. His research develops at the intersection of borders, migration and development studies, and is concerned with the geography and spatiality of development; border management and interventions; the figures of the migrant and the refugee. Whether you agree or disagree with Etienne Balibar‘s proposition that “borders are everywhere”, border-related workshops certainly are. This is unsurprising as most, if not all,

1902, 2016

Women’s Rights and the Arab Uprisings

By Jo Tomkinson|February 19, 2016|Social movements, Women's rights|0 comments

Ahlem Belhadj is a practitioner and teacher of child psychiatry in Tunisia. She co-founded the Coalition for Sexual and Corporal Rights in Muslim Societies and won the 2012 Simone de Beauvoir Prize. She has authored several books on child psychiatry, the abuse of children and women and women’s rights. She has also been described as ‘The Arab Spring’s Tunisian Heroine’. In December 2015 Ahlem Belhadi gave a lecture in the