CRC-TRR Public Lecture: Stefan Ouma

Mon | April 7th, 2025 | 16:00 – 17:30  (CEST)


Between the City and the Countryside: Centering Accumulation in African Studies

Prof. Dr. Stefan Ouma (University of Bayreuth)


Thinking beyond clear-cut rural-urban divides, this presentation is a call for centring accumulation in the study of African Cities, and developing respective theoretical concepts. “Accumulation” is much more than “growth” or “development”, which cloud the processes through which value is created and/or distributed and how they interact with power relations. “Accumulation” helps us center political economy questions: who owns what, who does what and why, who gets what (broadly defined as “surplus”, but including returns that might not be generated from productive labour in a narrow sense) and what do they do with it – in and beyond Africa. It allows us grounding these questions in larger relations and social structures that often transcend the domain of the locale, often amounting to global entanglements (global commodity chains; global investment chains; other social networks, algorithmic infrastructures etc.). Debates on accumulation in Africa also offer the opportunity to link with global debates on increasing wealth divides (“asset-based inequality”), and the rise of the rentier economy.

Professor Stefan Ouma is Chair of Economic Geography at the Department of Geography at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, where he also is the co-director of the Institute of African Studies and a PI in the Cluster of Excellence “Africa Multiple”. His scholarship has focussed on the political economy and ecology of global agri-food commodity chains, and the financialization of land and agriculture. More recently, he has delved into research on intersectional inequalities and associated ideologies, particularly how these transpire in the world of the tech-economy. He is currently a co-speaker in the BMBF-funded Racism Research Network (WinRa) and is a former member of the editorial collective of Antipode.



Venue:

Geozentrum, Ü8
University of Bonn,
Meckenheimer-Allee 176,
53115 Bonn

More CRC Lectures

poster for a public lecture with kai koddenbrock

CRC-TRR Public Lecture: Kai Koddenbrock

Mon | May 5th, 2025 | 16:00 – 17:30  (CEST) Earnest Struggles for Structural Transformation in West Africa: Governing the Disarticulated Economy Since Independence Prof. ...
Read More »
picture of the Australian outback's landscape

Online Lecture: Grappling With Conservation Futures – Reflections and Insights from Iconic Landscapes in Australia. With Carina Wyborn (Australian National University)

Tue | March 18th, 2025 | 9:00 (CET) Carina Wyborn is an interdisciplinary social scientist with background in science and technology studies, and human ecology. ...
Read More »

CRC-TRR Public Lecture: Sebastian Haug

Mon | February 3rd, 2025 | 16:00 – 17:30  (CET) Unpacking Power Shifts: The Global South, China, and Multilateral Cooperation Dr. Sebastian Haug (German Institute ...
Read More »

CRC-TRR Public Lecture: Marc Boeckler

Mon | January 13, 2025 | 16:00 – 17:30  CEST Marc Boeckler is Professor of Economic Geography and Global Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt, where ...
Read More »
poster for a public lecture with jaqueline loos

CRC-TRR Public Lecture: Jacqueline Loos

Mon | December 16, 2024 | 16:00 – 17:30  CEST Jacqueline Loos is an environmental and sustainability scientist with a focus on sustainable landscape development. ...
Read More »
Scroll to Top