1708, 2017

Book review of Nandini Sundar’s The Burning Forest

By Safa Joudeh|August 17, 2017|Conflict, Democracy, Forced displacement, Journal of Agrarian Change, Neoliberalism, Political ecology, State in development|0 comments

This post is written by Christian Lund who is Professor of Development, Resource Management, and Governance, at the Department of Food and Resource Economics, at Copenhagen University. It is part of the Journal of Agrarian Change blog, hosted on the Development Studies at SOAS blog. The Burning Forest. India’s War in Bastar, by Nandini Sundar. Delhi: Juggernaut, 2016. Pp. 413+xvi. ₹ (Indian Rupees) 699 (cloth). ISBN 978-93-8622-800-0. Terror is at the heart

2310, 2016

India’s Land Question

By Jo Tomkinson|October 23, 2016|Journal of Agrarian Change|0 comments

Michael Levien is an Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on India and seeks to advance a nascent sociology of dispossession. He teaches on international development, agrarian change, dispossession, and social theory. This post is part of the Journal of Agrarian Change blog, hosted on the Development Studies at SOAS blog. It is a summary of the talk given by the author as part of the Agrarian

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

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

2212, 2015

A Brief History of ISIS

By Jo Tomkinson|December 22, 2015|Conflict, Neoliberalism, Uncategorized|0 comments

Adam Hanieh is a Senior Lecturer in the SOAS Department of Development Studies. He is the author of the 2013 book Lineages of Revolt: Issues of Contemporary Capitalism in the Middle East. His research interests include political economy of the Middle East, labour migration, class and state formation in the Gulf Cooperation Council and Palestine. ISIS emerged out of the dashed hopes of the Arab Spring In the wake of the

1712, 2015

Brazilian Democracy in Distress: Unpacking Dilma Rousseff’s Impeachment

By Jo Tomkinson|December 17, 2015|Democracy, Neoliberalism, Uncategorized|2 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. Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies has opened impeachment procedures against President Dilma Rousseff, of the Workers’ Party (PT). This manoeuvre is led by an unholy coalition of opportunistic politicians, grubby businessmen, ravenous financiers,

1312, 2015

Venezuela’s Chavismo at a Crossroads after Landslide Opposition Victory

By Jo Tomkinson|December 13, 2015|Democracy, Uncategorized|0 comments

Ryan Brading is a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Development Studies at SOAS. He is author of the 2013 book Populism in Venezuela. His research interests include populist politics in Latin America and East Asia. December elections leave Chavismo in disarray The death of the charismatic President Hugo Chávez in March 2013 left an emotional, political and institutional vacuum in Venezuela. Chávez’s fiery rhetoric and alpha male persona captured