Detall

RESEARCHING AFRICAN ECONOMIC HISTORY

Short graduate course (UB), 9-11 April 2019
(10-13:15 hours, Sala de Recepcions, Edifici 690. Facultat d’Economia i Empresa)

Gareth Austin (University of Cambridge)

Recently there has been a resurgence of new work on African economic history, much of it quantitative, making it at present one of the liveliest fields in economic history. These lectures and discussions will offer a short introduction to the evolution and state of research on the economic history of Sub-Saharan Africa, exploring questions of sources and method, shifts in theories and economic historiography, and focussing on key debates.

Format: the course will occupy three successive mornings, each divided into two sections by a coffee break. I propose to start each of the six sections with a lecture followed by general discussion, informed by readings suggested in advance.

Tuesday 9 April

Section 1. The history and present state of research in African economic history
The central question -- why is Africa relatively poor -- and how it has been reframed and addressed by successive schools of thought since the end of colonial rule. The recent resurgence of research in the field: what is different?

Section 2. Sources, methods, techniques: what can we know, and how best can we find out?
The sources, even quantitative ones, are more numerous and better quality than we used to suppose; but alongside the opportunities, there remain fundamental constraints. What kinds of quantification have been undertaken in recent research, with what achievements and problems?

Wednesday 10 April

Section 3. Two fundamental issues in precolonial economic history
Mastering the resource base: labour scarcity and land abundance. Economics and political economy of the export of captives: the Atlantic case.

Section 4. Markets and coercion from the nineteenth century to Independence
Economics and political economy of the growth and 'slow death' of slave labour within tropical Africa, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. What difference did the type of colonial economy make to African welfare, entrepreneurship, economic growth and structural change? Settler, plantation and 'peasant' colonies.

Thursday 11 April

Section 5. Economic development with and beyond coercion
The 'capitalism and apartheid' debate in South Africa. Post-colonial economic development in Africa: the record and its determinants.

Section 6. Africa in Global Economic History
What can economic historians learn from African history? The method of reciprocal comparison. Long-term paths of development. Culture and economic behaviour. Policy, institutions, and the interaction of economic activity with the changing natural endowment.

To attend the workshop, please register at https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=qzwxosOxOk-7ESFXRH3btBEdAcFIS6xPsMMuAxUraHVURUY4TE04OFJGV1hBUVZOSTA0R0lFSlg4US4u