Search results

Foundations for development in Southern Africa -- The elusive developmental nexus -- Beyond development -- Botswana: paternalism and the developmental state -- Zimbabwe: the failing state revisited -- South Africa: normalization of uneven development.

The potential for shale gas development (SGD) in South Africa's environmentally sensitive Karoo region has attracted the interest of energy companies, government and the public. The South African government is eager to revive economic growth, improve energy security following an energy supply crisis and relieve high unemployment. The public is torn between environmental concerns and prospects of economic benefits, while investors seek clarity in legislation. The impact of the US shale revolution explains the allure of SGD and constitutes the only model worldwide of a developed shale industry. South Africa is a useful case study for examining how various societal interests shape support for and opposition to SGD. While government seeks to proceed with exploration, a dominant coal industry and other alternatives including renewables and nuclear compete for attention, and there are increasing concerns about the size and economic viability of South Africa's shale gas deposits. Influential actors in the energy-intensive industries comprising South Africa's powerful 'minerals-energy complex' will play a role in how any shale industry might develop. By considering the interests of key actors including a vacillating government, cautious energy companies and a determined environmental lobby, this article examines South Africa's tenuous road towards SGD.

This article examines how gatekeeper states develop by comparing Nigeria, an archetypal gatekeeper state, with Chad, a more recent oil producer. It considers what emerging producers may learn from established ones, to thereby avoid the resource curse and thus move beyond the limitations of the gatekeeper state. Gatekeeping might be mitigated by transparency and governance initiatives promoted by International Financial Institutions, Western governments, civil society organisations and even emerging producer governments themselves. But established gatekeeper states are also likely to endure and to emerge among new producers. Thus the gatekeeper state concept, and its utility in analysing resource-rich states, endures.

Conservatism and conservative party politics in Britain and America is associated with neocolonial attitudes, including pursuit of national interests ahead of post-colonial development. Based on interviews conducted in Washington and London with actors involved with African development, this article examines comparative shifts in conservatives' engagements from the late Cold War era to the G. W. Bush and Cameron governments. Greater ideological heterogeneity and distinctiveness among American conservative interests groups, combined with a bureaucratic environment in the US allowing more direct channels for ideological input into policy, results in a more clearly conservative stamp on Africa policy in the US than in Britain where ideological lines on development have become more blurred since the 1997 New Labour election victory and creation of the Department for International Development.Conservatism and conservative party politics in Britain and America is associated with neocolonial attitudes, including pursuit of national interests ahead of post-colonial development. Based on interviews conducted in Washington and London with actors involved with African development, this article examines comparative shifts in conservatives' engagements from the late Cold War era to the G. W. Bush and Cameron governments. Greater ideological heterogeneity and distinctiveness among American conservative interests groups, combined with a bureaucratic environment in the US allowing more direct channels for ideological input into policy, results in a more clearly conservative stamp on Africa policy in the US than in Britain where ideological lines on development have become more blurred since the 1997 New Labour election victory and creation of the Department for International Development.

This article examines the legacy of Post-Development theory, in particular its relevance and applicability to debates about Africa's future. It scrutinises Post-Development theory, and its claims about the end of development, through the prisms of Africa's continued pursuit of development and its political economy of energy. It considers the impact of these aspects of Africa's developmental efforts on the ability of Post-Development theory to remain relevant in light of recent developments. Revisiting basic claims of Post-Development theory provides insights into the enduring disconnect and incommensurability between Africa's twenty-first century socio-economic trajectories and the core assumptions of Post-Development theory.

This article examines resource nationalism in sub-Saharan Africa's energy and minerals markets. It does so by exploring economic and political developments in three cases: Nigeria as an example of a petro-state established by means of expropriation in the wake of decolonisation; South Africa, a mature mining industry shaped by its settler colonial history; and Mozambique, a new and therefore highly-dependent entrant into the league of significant natural gas producers. Extractive industries have played a controversial role in sub-Saharan Africa due in particular to the prevalence of the resource curse. Nevertheless, energy exports will continue to play an important role in fuelling economic growth and, potentially, also development as new deposits of natural gas and oil are discovered across the region. Resource nationalism has, moreover, increasingly constrained operations of the traditionally dominant Western energy companies, in particular as competition from state-owned energy companies in sub-Saharan Africa and from emerging powers such as China is increasing.