Dr Gareth Austin, C314

Optional half-unit course, taught in the Lent Term for MSc Global History, MSc Economic History and MSc Economic History (Research), MSc Political Economy of Late Development, LSE-Columbia University Double Degree in International and World History, LSE-Sciences Po Double Degree in Development Economics and Economic History and MA Global Studies: A European Perspective. Other students require the permission of the course teacher and their own tutor.

Students must have taken EH413 African Economic Development in Historical Perspective.

The interaction of theory, politics and empirical research in the development of the subject; global economic history and the study of Africa; Sources and methods: archival, oral and published sources; resources and problems in the construction and use of quantitative data; Specific historical topics, the list of which will change from year to year, but may include factor endowments and choice of production technique (in agriculture and manufacturing, including ecological aspects); rational-choice and culturalist approaches to the history of markets and property rights (including land tenure, slavery, free labour, and the gender division of work and wealth); the influence of interest groups and collective identities (including ethnicity) on the formation of institutions and policies (notably in the post-colonial era).

The course introduces the sources and considers the methods used in the economic history of Sub-Saharan Africa; reviews the evolution of knowledge and debate; and considers the state of the field, theoretical approaches and priorities for further research.

LT only: weekly two-hour seminar.

Students are required to make one class presentation and submit one paper during the term.

F. Cooper, 'Africa and the World Economy', in F. Cooper at al., Confronting Historical Paradigms (1993); R. H. Bates, Essays on the Political Economy of Rural Africa (1983); P. Collier and J. Gunning, 'Explaining African economic performance', Journal of Economic Literature 37 (1999), pp. 64-111; P. Lovejoy & D. Richardson, 'Trust, pawnship, and Atlantic history: the institutional foundations of the Old Calabar slave trade', American Historical Review 104 (1999), pp. 333-55; N. Wariboko, 'A Theory of the Canoe House Corporation', African Economic History 26 (1998), pp. 141-72; G. Austin, Labour, Land and Capital in Ghana (2005), chs 1, 2, 20; E. Mandala, 'Capitalism, kinship and gender in the Lower Tchiri (Shire) valley of Malawi, 1860-1960: an alternative theoretical framework', African Economic History 13 (1984), pp. 137-69; N. Nattrass, 'Controversies about capitalism and apartheid in South Africa', Journal of Southern African Studies 17 (1991), pp. 654-77; T. Forrest, The Advance of African Capital: the Growth of Nigerian Private Enterprise (1994); J-P. Platteau, 'The evolutionary theory of land rights as applied to Sub-Saharan Africa: a critical assessment', Development and Change 27 (1996), pp. 29-86; F. Cooper, 'What is the concept of globalization good for? An African historian's perspective', African Affairs 100: 399 (2001), pp. 190-213; M. Sheridan, 'The environmental consequences of independence and socialism in North Pare, Tanzania, 1961-88', Journal of African History 45 (2004), pp. 81-102; J. Destombes, 'From long-term patterns of seasonal hunger to changing experiences of everyday poverty: north-eastern Ghana, c.1930-2000'Journal of African History 47: 3 (2006).

A term paper of no more than 3,000 words. The submission date will be specified at the start of the course.