We are happy to announce that the joint paper by Jana Hönke and Eric Cezne ‘The multiple meanings and uses of South–South relations in extraction: The Brazilian mining company Vale in Mozambique’ has just been published online first in World Development. Therefore, we would like to provide you with a brief preview of what it is…

We are very happy to announce that the research group ‘AFRICA’s INFRASTRUCTURE GLOBALITIES’ offers a PhD position (m/f/d) on the subject of transnational contentious politics and situational publics in South-South relations.  Within this broader endeavor, you will have the opportunity to develop and conduct a research project on contentious politics and transnational situational publics in…

In November 2021 we initiated a collaborative research project with the Johannesburg-based Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW). SARW is a leading NGO in the area of extractive industries, working towards participation, transparency, accountability, and environmental and human rights in the sector. The research is spearheaded by Claude Kabemba, Georges Mukuli, and Joseph Cihunda from SARW. Together,…

In November, the Infraglob editorial team (Jana Hönke, Eric Cezne, and Yifan Yang) hosted a virtual authors’ workshop for the edited volume ‘South-South Infrastructure Globalities. How Transnational Practices Are (Re)made In Africa’ at the University of Bayreuth. Authors from four continents (Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe) and eleven countries shared and discussed the first…

Jana Hönke and Mia Yang had the pleasure to present the INFRAGLOB project and selected, preliminary research results at the CrossArea Annual Conference that was held in Bayreuth on 18 and 19 November. This year’s conference took place under the topic ‘Africa’s Entanglement in the World’. The CrossArea association is a German umbrella organization of…

This summer and autumn have been busy months for the INFRAGLOB team. Despite the challenging context of the ongoing pandemic, we had the opportunity to share our research in a number conferences, discussion panels and workshops in virtual space. We are very grateful to all the organizers who made it possible to continue academic exchange…

ERC INFRAGLOB team member Raoul Bunskoek and co-author Chih-yu Shih, Professor in Political Science at  National Taiwan University, have recently published the article, ‘‘Community of Common Destiny’ as Post-Western Regionalism: Rethinking China’s Belt and Road Initiative from a Confucian Perspective’ in the journal Uluslararasi Iliskiler – International Relations. The paper is part of the special…

At the beginning of the 21st century, Africa experienced a fundamental change: while development aid and foreign investment used to come mainly from the West, now economic relations with the emerging countries of the global South, including China and Brazil, became increasingly important. The deepening and expansion of these relations led to a geographical reorientation,…

By Eric Cezne In recent years, Brazil has been affected by a struggling economy and considerable political turmoil (Boito and Saad-Filho, 2016; Garmany and Pereira, 2018). In the meanwhile, Brazilian mining giant Vale S.A. (henceforth Vale) has faced a series of setbacks and negative appraisals in light of the destructive and lethal tailings dam tragedies at iron…

By Eric Cezne During my first field trip to Mozambique in May and June this year, it was clear that the country has been through quite some change since I left as a kid nearly 20 years ago.  Back then in the early 90s, my parents were there working in development cooperation and aid projects…