Globalization and the Southern African Economies: Research Report 130

by Mats Lundahl (Editor)

The present volume has its origin in a conference on globalization and Africa held in Cape Town at the end of 2001. It focuses on the place of Southern Africa in the globalized economy. The different chapters identify the overall economic trends in the African continent and the responses - required and actual - to the impact of an increasingly interdependent world economy.

An introductory chapter deals with the phenomenon of globalization in broad terms. Chapter 2 focuses on the marginal role of Africa in the global economy and some of the main reasons for this sad state of affairs. Chapter 3 attempts to answer the question whether globalization is good for Africa and analyzes the relationship between globalization and economic reform, using Zimbabwe as an example. Chapter 4 reports on a survey of popular attitudes towards globalization in a number of African countries. Chapter 5 provides an evaluation of economic integration efforts in Southern Africa. Finally, Chapter 6 uses the case of South Africa to discuss how globalization affects the workplace.

The Southern African nations are struggling to find their own ways of participating in global development. The present volume provides an insight into how this process has unfolded in the past and into the problems and challenges of the future.


Arne Bigsten is Professor of Development Economics at the School of Economics and Commercial Law at Göteborg University.
Michael Bratton is Professor of Political Science and African Studies at Michigan State University.
Dick Durevall is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Economics, School of Economics and Commercial Law, Göteborg University, and at the Department of Economic and Social Sciences, the University of Skövde.
Mats Lundahl, is Professor of Development Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics
Robert Mattes is Associate Professor of Political Studies and Director of the Democracy in Africa Research Unit in the Centre for Social Studies at the University of Cape Town.
Lennart Petersson is Associate Professor of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University, Sweden.
Natalie Pienaar has a degree in economics from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.
Edward Webster is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Sociology of Work Unit (SWOP) at the University of the Witwatersrand.

128 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2004

About the author

Mats Lundahl is a Swedish economist, and a tenured professor at the Stockholm School of Economics. His specialties are foreign aid and development economics.