Prof  Sarah Bracking - Research

I work principally in the disciplines of political economy and political science on African states and markets, particularly in southern Africa and Zimbabwe. I research politics and development, particularly comparative political analysis of democracies and democratisation (Review of African Political Economy, 2000; Series on Alternative Research in East Africa Trust (SAREAT) 2001; Kluwer Law International, 2002a; 2002b; Democracy Under Blair, 2003; The Constitution, 2010). My second research interest is in processes of malign politics, of political corruption, authoritarianism and state collapse (Review of African Political Economy, 2001, 2005, Corruption and Development, 2007, Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 2009). I also recently published a working paper on the Extractive Industries' Transparency Initiative (BWPI, 2009). The third research interest I have concerns processes of poverty and the political economy of impoverishment, dispossession and destitution (CPRC, 2003; Third World Quarterly, 2004; World Development 2005; Afriche e Orienti, 2009). In recent years I have concentrated in particular on the role of economic informalisation and migrant remittances within poverty reduction processes and livelihood protection (Journal of International Development, 2003; GPRG, 2006; International Migration, 2009; chapter in Zimbabwe's Exodus, 2010), through to current work on informalisation and displacement in African economies with a network of European scholars. I also have a long-standing interest in the activities of development finance institutions and how these relate to the construction of power in the global political economy (Review of African Political Economy, 1999, 2003; chap. 13 in Corruption and Development, 2007). I have written a book on this called Money and Power: the Great Predators in the Political Economy of Development, (Pluto Press, 2009). I am just completing a research project on the development efficacy of development finance institutions' (DFIs) use of secrecy jurisdictions/tax havens in the provision of private sector development funded by Norad. I have also studied the role of development finance and debt in a potential reconstruction of Zimbabwe in recent years in Review of African Political Economy, 2009 (with Professor Lionel Cliffe) and in a BWPI working paper (2010) with Prof. Lloyd Sachikonye