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Prof

Benjamin Selwyn

Professor of International Relations and International Development (International Relations)

School of Global Studies

  • Professor of International Relations and International Development (International Relations)
    School of Global Studies
  • +44 (0)1273 678191 Ext.8191 (Work)

BIO

I've been a member of the IR department since 2009. Before that I worked at the University of Southampton (2006-2008), the LSE (2004-2006) and SOAS (2002-2004).

Since the early 2000's I've been researching, teaching and writing about the dynamics of global development, and in particular the extreme patterns of inequality within and between states and regions. I am interested in the interconnections between global value chains, global food systems, class relations and development. I approach these issues by deploying an international political economy approach rooted in social reproduction theory.

I teach about these subjects on the following courses:

Key Thinkers in International Development (1st year Undergraduate)

Development and the State (2nd year Undergraduate)

The Global Politics of Food (3rd year Undergraduate)

The Political Economy of Development (MA).


I am particularly interested in the potential that a green new deal for agriculture has for addressing the disaster that is climate breakdown. I'm also interested in whether veganism can contribute to mitigating climate breakdown and have written several blogs on the subject for Le Monde Diplomatique and other outlets.



I am author of three single authored books and one co-edited collection about the dynamics of global development.


My first book'Workers, State and Development in Brazil: Powers of Labour, Chains of Value' (Manchester University Press: 2012), was based on my PhD research conducted in the first half of the 2000s. The book investigates how the Brazilian state, local public and private institutions and firms collaborated to implement a successful upgrading strategy within highly competitive global horticultural value chains, which resulted in North East Brazil becoming Brazil's main high-value grape exporting region. Within that context I investigated the extent to which workers benefitted from the region's rapid economic growth. The book details how the export boom has impacted on local level develoment, in particular on local labour standards, conditions of work and pay rates, gendering of work and women's participation in rural trade unions.

My second book, 'The Global Development Crisis' (Polity: 2014) addresses the central paradox of our times - the simultaneous presence of wealth on an unprecedented scale, and mass poverty. It explores this paradox through an interrogation of the work of some of the most important political economists of the last two centuries - Friedrich List, Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Schumpeter, Alexander Gerschenkron, Karl Polanyi and Amartya Sen.

My third book, The Struggle for Development, critiques the World Bank's dollar-a-day poverty methodology and shows how capitalism generates various new forms of poverty. Beyond critique the book also introduces and gives numerous examples of labour-led development, and argues for a post-capitalist development strategy.

PhD students who are interested in any of the above subjects are very welcome to contacat me to disucss potential supervision!


OFFICE HOURS - Spring Term: Fridays 2.30-4.30

please sign up for office hours via careerhub
(b.selwyn@sussex.ac.uk)

 

LANGUAGES

  • Portuguese
    Can speak

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