Afro-regions - The Dynamics of Cross-border Micro-regionalism in Africa

By: Fredrik Söderbaum and Ian Taylor (eds)

Afro-regions - The Dynamics of Cross-border Micro-regionalism in Africa edited by Fredrik Söderbaum and Ian Taylor

Please click here to consult the Nordic Africa Institute and/or order the book.

This collection focuses on the making and unmaking of cross-border micro-regions in Africa. Its main emphasis is that micro-regions are not givens, but are constructed and reconstructed through social practice, political economy and, in discourse, by a variety of states, corporations and non-state actors.

The region-builders are the focus — that is, those actors that build and make micro-regions and their associated region-building strategies. Key research questions are: for whom, for what purpose and with what consequences are micro-regions being made and unmade? There is also special emphasis on how people on the ground and local communities create their own region-building strategies and how they respond to the region-building strategies of others.

The case studies — by leading scholars of African studies and the result of extensive fieldwork — include a wide selection of micro-regions all over Africa, such as the Maputo Development Corridor, the Zambezi Valley region, the Zambia-Malawi-Mozambique Growth Triangle, Walvis Bay, the Sierra Leone-Liberia border zone, cross-border micro-regions on the Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes region, North Africa, and so forth.

Fredrik Söderbaum is Associate Professor in the School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, and Associate Research Fellow, United Nations University-Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS), Bruges, Belgium.

Ian Taylor is Professor in the School of International Relations, University of St. Andrews, United Kingdom and the Department of Political Science, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

From the contents

INTRODUCTION

Considering Micro-Regionalism in Africa in the Twenty-first Century
Fredrik Söderbaum and Ian Taylor

PART ONE: INFORMALISING THE FORMAL — OR VICE VERSA?

Competing Region-building in the Maputo Development CorridorFredrik Söderbaum and Ian Taylor

Walvis Bay-Swakopmund: Desert Micro-region and Aspiring Regional Gateway
David Simon and Muriel Samé Ekobo

Region-building in Central Mozambique: The Case of the Zambezi Valley Spatial Development Initiative
Milissão Nuvunga

The Zambia-Malawi-Mozambique Growth-Triangle (ZMM-GT): Discursive Region-Building in Africa and Consequences for Development
Nikki Slocum-Bradley

PART TWO: THE INFORMALITY OF MICRO-REGIONALISM IN AFRICA

Informal Cross-Border Micro-Regionalism in West Africa: The Case of the Parrot’s Beak
J. Andrew Grant

“At the Gates of El Dorado”: Micro-Dynamics in the Transnational Border Area between Northern Morocco and Europe
Terhi Lehtinen

The Road to the Sea: The Regional Politics of Ethiopia’s Trade
Christopher Clapham

War in the Great Lakes Region and Ugandan Conflict Zones: Micro-regionalisms and Meta-narratives
Morten Bøås and Kathleen M. Jennings

CONCLUSION

Beyond Parochialism: Cross-border Micro-Regionalism as a Gateway
Daniel Bach

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