regional development

Afro-regions : the dynamics of cross-border micro-regionalism in Africa

Medarbetare:	Söderbaum, Fredrik | Taylor, Ian
Utgivare:	Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2008
Ämnesord:	regionalization, Regional cooperation, regional integration, regional development, Regional organizations, politics, Governance, case studies, Africa, Political science, Statsvetenskap

This collection focuses on the making and unmaking of cross-border micro-regions in Africa. Its main emphasis is that micro-regions are not givens, but are constructed and reconstructed through social practice, political economy and, in discourse, by a variety of states, corporations and non-state actors. The region-builders are the focus -- that is, those actors that build and make micro-regions and their associated region-building strategies. Key research questions are: for whom, for what purpose and with what consequences are micro-regions being made and unmade? There is also special emphasis on how people on the ground and local communities create their own region-building strategies and how they respond to the region-building strategies of others. The case studies -- by leading scholars of African studies and the result of extensive fieldwork -- include a wide selection of micro-regions all over Africa, such as the Maputo Development Corridor, the Zambezi Valley region, the Zambia-Malawi-Mozambique Growth Triangle, Walvis Bay, the Sierra Leone-Liberia border zone, cross-border micro-regions on the Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes region, North Africa, and so forth.

Micro-regionalism in West Africa : evidence from two case studies

Upphovspersoner:	Söderbaum, Fredrik | Taylor, Ian
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2007
Ämnesord:	Regional cooperation, regional integration, regional development, regionalization, case studies, West Africa, Sahel, Niger, Nigeria, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

This collection seeks to complement and advance recent studies on regionalism in Africa and the implications that this has for the continent’s development. The two case studies on cross-border micro-regionalism in the borderlands of Mali-Burkina Faso and Niger-Nigeria are part of the work of the West Africa Borders and Integration (WABI). WABI is a research institute that looks at cross-border developments in West Africa, particularly at the convergence between political will and regionalisation on the ground. Providing a challenge to the considerable number of state-centric, formalistic and not seldom overly idealistic studies in this field, the two cases show quite clearly that formal borders either essentially do not exist in the Westphalian sense, being ignored by local populations and traders, or, are strategically used by (often self-styled) representatives of the state to extract resources and rents. In either case, the Eurocentric notion of fixed boundaries and bordered delineations has little purchase in the West African Sahel.