Planning Meeting

Central issues: Empirical bases for economic projections and modernisation models based on post-WWII Europe, must look closer to home for empirical bases for theories and practices.

Why hasn't African industrialisation, given that industrialisation was prescribed at different times since before the end of colonialism. Is Economic Transformation blind or aware of this? What are the success stories from the continent on economic planning? How much room is there, given the colonial continuities in African Economies? Does the fact that the 'Africa Rising' narrative take into account countries not using a colonial basis (i.e. extractive industry), mean that those models are more equitable growth models?
How can economic transformation take into account inequalities eg. racial or gender inequality? How can domestic resource mobilsation models be re-thought?

What are the costs associated with development, which costs are tolerated or borne and by whom? Who should pay the costs of development? Does the idea that "development needs patient labour and patient capital" hold in Africa today? If so how workable is this? How far can nationalist discourses impact this, have there been any successful examples?

Can we reinvent the modernisation trope so that it is more relevant to African experiences? How far can these take into account the tensions and conflicts in development (e.g. tensions on land reforms in Zimbabwe)?

Globalisation: development is not simply a nationalist project especially post 2008 and with emerging global political trends e.g. neoliberalism's ironic politically autocratic transformation, how does this more aggressive voice impact development writ large?

Central Question: What is the transformation to be aspired towards? (Calling into account public, civic and economic imaginaries originating from the continent to look at Old Problems, New Prospects: Which Economic Transformations for Africa.

Outline for the 3-day conference:
1) Cost of Development – inequalities, conflicts and tensions
2) Development Planing – role of the state, industrialisation
3) Global Political Economy – related to issues of days 1 and 2.