Politics of money

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

In his latest article, Kai Koddenbrock develops the notion of ‘earnest struggles’ in Senegal’s postcolonial history and shows that successive governments have indeed tried to move their country forward against the odds

In her latest article, Carla Coburger outlines a continuum of monetary unification systems and stresses the fundamental nature of political commitment to solidarity across monetary, productive, social, and political frontiers in order to achieve monetary unification as a stepping-stone to Pan-African unity.

Writing in the Conversation, Kai Koddenbrock argues that at no point in history has the CFA franc – the name of a colonial currency used in west and central African countries belonging to the franc zone – been closer to its demise

Writing on German trade and investment in Africa, Prof. Kai Koddenbrock argues that finding a balance between corporate interests and principled foreign policy poses a unique challenge for the nation grappling with shifting geopolitical dynamics

Writing on the Ghana's 2022-2023 debt crisis, Isaac Abotebuno Akolgo argues that Ghana's return to debt crisis is rooted in the systemic structural dysfunction of its economy, the unjust transnational order, and recent government policy mistakes

Working with the EReNSEP writing collective, Carla Coburger contributed to Costas Lapavitsas' 'The State of Capitalism' published by Verso Books

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.

Capital Claims: Power and Global Finance analyzes how global financialized capitalism operates and reproduces itself, exploring the remarkable ability of the financial sector to maintain its dominance through even the most severe economic crises. Check out now!

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

Kai Koddenbrock

Prof. of Political Economy, BCB
Research Group Leader, UBT

Isaac Abotebuno Akolgo

Postdoc, UBT and BCB

Aissata Diallo

Research Associate
PhD Candidate, BCB

Carla Coburger

Research Associate
PhD Candidate, UBT

Carolin Voß

Student Assistant

International Advisors

Max Ajl

Wageningen University, NL

Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven

King's College, London

Ndongo Samba Sylla

Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Dakar

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

K.Koddenbrock@berlin.bard.edu