About Us
We are a research group united in our critical perspectives on the global political economy and global finance. Led by Kai Koddenbrock, the group investigates how West African societies have attempted to increase their political and economic sovereignty. We attempt to find out how most West African countries became exporters of only one or two commodities with the help of foreign capital and military force. We then seek to understand how postcolonial, newly independent governments have attempted to move away from this with the help of domestic resources, the creation of public and private banks, foreign debt and, most recently, stronger relations to China. Increasing economic complexity, diversifying the economy and thus to reduce dependencies on the world market have been perennial pursuits but have often failed. The Covid crisis has put this into stark relief, again. How can we explain recurrent debt crises and the difficulties in moving away from raw commodity export dependency? Which role do global and domestic social relations play and what does that mean for the state in West Africa? To find answers to these questions we investigate the role of colonial legacies and the various attempts by governments to increase national self-determination through public policies to arrive at a nuanced picture of what can be done in the current global political economy.
News
Ghana, like many other countries, is currently dealing with a new debt crisis that has been blamed on covid-induced spending and the fallout from the Russia-Ukraine war. Isaac Abotebuno Akolgo spoke with Lev Moscow of the A Correction podcast, arguing that far from Covid and Russia-Ukraine, the unfolding debt storm is rooted in historical, systemic and structural problems.
Under the theme: “Facing the Socio-Ecological Crisis: Delinking and the Question of Global Reparations”, the Monetary and Economic Sovereignty conference which was held between the 25-28 October 2022 attracted leading scholars across the globe to Dakar. Caroline Cornier participated and has written a synthesis of all that was discussed and agreed.
Recently, we have introduced a new umbrella concept—international financial subordination (IFS)—to channel research efforts towards cumulative theory-building. IFS is about unearthing why the structural power of finance takes a particularly violent form of expression in Developing and Emerging Economies (DEEs). Learn more!
Team
International Advisors
Network
From 2017 to 2023 Kai Koddenbrock and Benjamin Braun led and organized the research network Politics of Money. It was a group of political economists that investigated the resilience of finance capitalism. Together, we assessed the role of capitalist money for the global political economy and crisis-prone capitalism by exploring how money works as a global systemic relation, how and which actors work with, for and against it, which hierarchies it entails and what the implications for inequality are. It was funded by DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft).
Contact Us
Prof. Dr. Kai Koddenbrock
Bard College Berlin
Platanenstaße 24
D – 13156 Berlin