Bettina Engels
Biographic Data
| ID | 637773 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bettina Engels |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bettina |
| FAMILY NAME | Engels |
| SIGNATURE | ENGELS B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Freie Universität Berlin |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2897-407X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 114 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 36 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1983 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Extractive industry indigenisation in Zimbabwe: Neoextractivism, resource nationalism and uneven development
Reale Utopien in der Landwirtschaft: Strategien progressiver Agrarbewegungen für eine emanzipatorische sozial-ökologische Transformation
Der Beitrag untersucht die Strategien von Agrarbewegungen, die statt für die Verteidigung des Status quo für einen progressiven Wandel von Agrarstrukturen, ungleichen Klassen- und Geschlechterverhältnissen, sozial-ökologisch zerstörerischen Produktions- und Konsumweisen mobilisieren. Wir schließen damit an die Forschung zu emancipatory rural politics an, die sich damit befasst, welche Widerstände gegen und Alternativen zu den aktuellen autoritäre…
Frantz Fanon at 100: Class struggle and the future of African liberation
Workers, protests and trade unions in Africa
Theorie ist nicht neutral
Theorie und Praxis (pan-)afrikanischer sozialer Bewegungen
Disparate but not antagonistic: Classes of labour in cotton production in Burkina Faso
This paper examines the variety of agrarian classes of labour and the challenges they face in organizing and pursuing their interests. By taking the cotton sector in Burkina Faso as a case study, it analyses how various ‘classes of labour’ organize and mobilize for collective action to raise their claims: poor cotton farmers and workers in the cotton factories. Poor and middle farmers recently came to the fore when they boycotted cotton productio…
Coups and neo-colonialism
Special issue: Labour unions in the Global South in times of neoliberalism/Les syndicats du Sud global à l’ère néolibérale
In this introduction to the Special Issue on ‘Labour unions in the Global South in times of neoliberalism’, we argue that trade unions have emerged from a historical specific context, i.e. a specific setting of relations of production. We understand trade unionism not as a fixed institutional and organizational form, but as a tool that provides manifold possibilities of adaption. Studying the forms it takes and the processes of its adaption, also…
Income opportunities for many or development through state revenues? Contested narratives on mining
The article investigates how the narrative that speaks of large-scale mining (LSM) by multinational companies as a pathway to development is formed and sustained. The promotion of capitalism as a mode of production, in general, and for the profit of multinational companies, in particular, is legitimized by a positively connoted notion of ‘development’. This builds on modernization theory and complies with the neoliberal paradigm. By using Burkina…
Popular struggles and the search for alternative democracies
Transition now? Another coup d’état in Burkina Faso
The briefing explores the dynamics underpinning the coup d’état in Burkina Faso that took place on 24 to 25 January 2022. It does so by discussing the putschists’ justification to fight threats by non-state armed groups and situates the coup in the history of Burkina Faso. Since formal independence the country has been characterised by strikes, military coups and constitutional referendums. In contrast to 2015, however, when broad popular resista…
Handbook of Critical Agrarian Studies
Exploring the emerging and vibrant field of critical agrarian studies, this comprehensive Handbook offers interdisciplinary insights from both leading scholars and activists to understand agrarian life, livelihoods, formations and processes of change. It highlights the development of the field, which is characterized by theoretical and methodological pluralism and innovation.
Extractivism, informal work and strategies for political-economic transformation
This issue focuses on two topics that are central to political economy in general, and African political economy in particular, and that have been intensively discussed in ROAPE over many decades: extractivism and the informal economy. Both are structural economic features all over the continent, and manifold social struggles relate to them. '[E]xtractivism is the dominant feature of most African economies. The absence of processes of structural …
Peasant Resistance in Burkina Faso's Cotton Sector
This article examines how and why smallholder peasants mobilize for collective action to put forward their claims. Taking the resistance by cotton farmers in Burkina Faso as a case study, it demonstrates that institutions of neoliberal governance – which are presented by their proponents as making governance more “effective” by improving the participation of various public and private stakeholders in different degrees – nevertheless fail to repre…
All good things come from below? Scalar constructions of the 'local' in conflicts over mining
Gold is not for eating
This article presents large-scale gold mining and related conflicts in Burkina Faso - a paramount example of the recent commodity boom and its pervasive socio-economic effects. Mobilization around the Houndé gold mine, located 250 km southwest of the capital Ouagadougou, is depicted as an illustration
Die Gelegenheit nutzen: Die Evaluation der Friedens- und Konfliktforschung durch den Wissenschaftsrat aus der Perspektive der Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (AFK)
In diesem Forumsbeitrag kommentieren wir die aktuelle Evaluation der Friedens- und Konfliktforschung in Deutschland durch den Wissenschaftsrat als (ehemalige) Vorsitzende der Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (AFK e. V.). Wir reflektieren, was die Evaluation aus der Perspektive der AFK für das Forschungsfeld der Friedens- und Konfliktforschung und für den Verband selbst bedeutet. Dazu stellen wir dar, wie die AFK als Fachver…
Not normal, not just: Protest against large-scale mining from a moral economy perspective
This article investigates conflicts over large-scale mining through the lens of E. P. Thompson’s concept of the moral economy. The concept proves fruitful for an analysis of the local impacts of fundamental political-economic transformations, notably how people are affected by, and react to, structural changes. The recent global “commodity boom” and the related expansion of large-scale mining is a case in point. I refer to the moral economy to an…
Analysing land conflicts in times of global crises
Handwerklicher Bergbau
Industrieller Bergbau
Agrarfrage
Northern theories, Southern movements? Contentious politics in Africa through the lens of social movement theory
The article examines the extent to, and the conditions under which theoretical approaches from Social Movement Studies, mainly developed based on empirical experiences from the Global North, are appropriate for analysing contentious politics in the South, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In order to answer this question, the article discusses whether social movements in Africa differ fundamentally from those in other world regions. Four main a…
Contested extractivism
In the period 2000-12, high prices on the world market and increasing demand for raw materials, accompanied by insecurity on the financial markets, led to a worldwide resource boom. This boom was notably reflected in the mining sector. Increasing investment and production resulted in a historically unique level of growth in this sector. Up until today, numerous studies have investigated single cases of conflicts over mining in sub-Saharan Africa,…
Analysing land conflicts in times of global crises
Nothing will be as before: Shifting political opportunity structures in protests against gold mining in Burkina Faso
Contentious Politics of Scale: The Global Food Price Crisis and Local Protest in Burkina Faso
Global crises such as the financial crisis, the energy crisis and the food crisis have, without doubt, social, political and ecological repercussions on the local scale. This article explores the mechanisms that mediate global crises into local conflicts. Based on empirical insights, it aims to contribute to the study of how global structures and processes relate to local conflicts and protest. The study analyses conflicts over the high cost of l…
Different means of protest, same causes: Popular struggles in Burkina Faso
The article examines the relationship of riots to more organised and sustained protests by trade unions and other established oppositional organisations. It focuses on protests related to the 2007–2008 food and fuel price crisis. In a case study on Burkina Faso, actors, means and achievements of the popular struggles are analysed. It is argued that protests by the trade unions on the one side and riots on the other relate to one another. Both pre…
Social movement struggles against the high cost of living in Burkina Faso
In reaction to the global food price crisis, people marched in the streets of numerous cities of the Global South, protesting against unaffordable prices for foodstuffs. This article investigates the conditions that enabled this mobilisation. It analyses the case of Burkina Faso, where protests were particularly intense. Building on approaches from social movement studies, it is argued that in Burkina Faso, temporal political opportunities (the p…
Transition now? Another coup d’état in Burkina Faso
The briefing explores the dynamics underpinning the coup d’état in Burkina Faso that took place on 24 to 25 January 2022. It does so by discussing the putschists’ justification to fight threats by non-state armed groups and situates the coup in the history of Burkina Faso. Since formal independence the country has been characterised by strikes, military coups and constitutional referendums. In contrast to 2015, however, when broad popular resista…
A stolen revolution: Popular class mobilisation in Burkina Faso
The political history of Burkina Faso since the formal end of its colonisation is characterised by vibrant mass mobilisation by largely Marxist-oriented labour unions and their allies, namely organisations from the human rights, student, and youth movements. This article traces the development of social mobilisation and protest in Burkina Faso through six historical phases since 1960, including the recent regime change in 2014 that has frequently…
Radical political economy and industrialisation in Africa: Roape/Third World Network-Africa Connections workshop, held in Accra, Ghana, 13–14 November 2017
no abstract
Political Transition in Burkina Faso: The Fall of Blaise Compaoré
This commentary traces recent regime change and political transition in Burkina Faso. After mass demonstrations Blaise Compaoré was forced to resign his presidency on 31 October 2014. His resignation was preceded by his attempt to change the constitution to allow him to stand for a fifth consecutive term in office. It is argued in this briefing that the way Compaoré’s rule ended should have come as no surprise because it was typical of both Burki…
Coups and neo-colonialism
Northern theories, Southern movements? Contentious politics in Africa through the lens of social movement theory
The article examines the extent to, and the conditions under which theoretical approaches from Social Movement Studies, mainly developed based on empirical experiences from the Global North, are appropriate for analysing contentious politics in the South, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In order to answer this question, the article discusses whether social movements in Africa differ fundamentally from those in other world regions. Four main a…
Popular struggles and the search for alternative democracies
Extractivism, informal work and strategies for political-economic transformation
This issue focuses on two topics that are central to political economy in general, and African political economy in particular, and that have been intensively discussed in ROAPE over many decades: extractivism and the informal economy. Both are structural economic features all over the continent, and manifold social struggles relate to them. '[E]xtractivism is the dominant feature of most African economies. The absence of processes of structural …
Indian doctors in Australia: Costs and benefits of the brain drain
The ‘brain‐drain’ of doctors is examined in Australia, with particular reference to Indian doctors in New South Wales, the principal destination of all migrant doctors. The Indian medical system exhibits an urban bias, and hence a misdirection and loss of investment; health care is inadequate especially in rural areas and modern technology dominates primary health care. Since the mid‐1960s Indian doctors have migrated to Australia and transformed…
Special issue: Labour unions in the Global South in times of neoliberalism/Les syndicats du Sud global à l’ère néolibérale
In this introduction to the Special Issue on ‘Labour unions in the Global South in times of neoliberalism’, we argue that trade unions have emerged from a historical specific context, i.e. a specific setting of relations of production. We understand trade unionism not as a fixed institutional and organizational form, but as a tool that provides manifold possibilities of adaption. Studying the forms it takes and the processes of its adaption, also…
Peasant Resistance in Burkina Faso's Cotton Sector
This article examines how and why smallholder peasants mobilize for collective action to put forward their claims. Taking the resistance by cotton farmers in Burkina Faso as a case study, it demonstrates that institutions of neoliberal governance – which are presented by their proponents as making governance more “effective” by improving the participation of various public and private stakeholders in different degrees – nevertheless fail to repre…
Burkina Faso: A History of Power, Protest and Revolution
Burkina Faso: a history of power, protest and revolution." Review of African Political Economy, 45(156), pp. 363–364
Trade Unionism in Burkina Faso
Cet article analyse le syndicalisme au Burkina Faso, en se concentrant sur la période allant de la fin des années 1980 à aujourd'hui. On peut dégager quatre phases historiques : (1) les luttes démocratiques de la fin des années 1980 à la fin des années 1990 ; (2) les revendications de droits civiques et humains de la fin des années 1990 jusqu'au milieu des années 2000 ; (3) les protestations face à la hausse des prix des biens alimentaires et de …
Indian doctors in Australia: Costs and benefits of the brain drain
The ‘brain‐drain’ of doctors is examined in Australia, with particular reference to Indian doctors in New South Wales, the principal destination of all migrant doctors. The Indian medical system exhibits an urban bias, and hence a misdirection and loss of investment; health care is inadequate especially in rural areas and modern technology dominates primary health care. Since the mid‐1960s Indian doctors have migrated to Australia and transformed…
Globale Krisen - Lokale Konflikte?
Different means of protest, same causes: Popular struggles in Burkina Faso
The article examines the relationship of riots to more organised and sustained protests by trade unions and other established oppositional organisations. It focuses on protests related to the 2007–2008 food and fuel price crisis. In a case study on Burkina Faso, actors, means and achievements of the popular struggles are analysed. It is argued that protests by the trade unions on the one side and riots on the other relate to one another. Both pre…
Political Transition in Burkina Faso: The Fall of Blaise Compaoré
This commentary traces recent regime change and political transition in Burkina Faso. After mass demonstrations Blaise Compaoré was forced to resign his presidency on 31 October 2014. His resignation was preceded by his attempt to change the constitution to allow him to stand for a fifth consecutive term in office. It is argued in this briefing that the way Compaoré’s rule ended should have come as no surprise because it was typical of both Burki…
Social movement struggles against the high cost of living in Burkina Faso
In reaction to the global food price crisis, people marched in the streets of numerous cities of the Global South, protesting against unaffordable prices for foodstuffs. This article investigates the conditions that enabled this mobilisation. It analyses the case of Burkina Faso, where protests were particularly intense. Building on approaches from social movement studies, it is argued that in Burkina Faso, temporal political opportunities (the p…
Trade Unionism in Burkina Faso
Cet article analyse le syndicalisme au Burkina Faso, en se concentrant sur la période allant de la fin des années 1980 à aujourd'hui. On peut dégager quatre phases historiques : (1) les luttes démocratiques de la fin des années 1980 à la fin des années 1990 ; (2) les revendications de droits civiques et humains de la fin des années 1990 jusqu'au milieu des années 2000 ; (3) les protestations face à la hausse des prix des biens alimentaires et de …
Contentious Politics of Scale: The Global Food Price Crisis and Local Protest in Burkina Faso
Global crises such as the financial crisis, the energy crisis and the food crisis have, without doubt, social, political and ecological repercussions on the local scale. This article explores the mechanisms that mediate global crises into local conflicts. Based on empirical insights, it aims to contribute to the study of how global structures and processes relate to local conflicts and protest. The study analyses conflicts over the high cost of l…
Struggles Against the High Cost of Living in Burkina Faso
Wünsch Dir was
Contested extractivism
In the period 2000-12, high prices on the world market and increasing demand for raw materials, accompanied by insecurity on the financial markets, led to a worldwide resource boom. This boom was notably reflected in the mining sector. Increasing investment and production resulted in a historically unique level of growth in this sector. Up until today, numerous studies have investigated single cases of conflicts over mining in sub-Saharan Africa,…
Nothing will be as before: Shifting political opportunity structures in protests against gold mining in Burkina Faso
Radical political economy and industrialisation in Africa: Roape/Third World Network-Africa Connections workshop, held in Accra, Ghana, 13–14 November 2017
no abstract
A stolen revolution: Popular class mobilisation in Burkina Faso
The political history of Burkina Faso since the formal end of its colonisation is characterised by vibrant mass mobilisation by largely Marxist-oriented labour unions and their allies, namely organisations from the human rights, student, and youth movements. This article traces the development of social mobilisation and protest in Burkina Faso through six historical phases since 1960, including the recent regime change in 2014 that has frequently…
Burkina Faso: A History of Power, Protest and Revolution
Burkina Faso: a history of power, protest and revolution." Review of African Political Economy, 45(156), pp. 363–364
Handwerklicher Bergbau
Industrieller Bergbau
Agrarfrage
Northern theories, Southern movements? Contentious politics in Africa through the lens of social movement theory
The article examines the extent to, and the conditions under which theoretical approaches from Social Movement Studies, mainly developed based on empirical experiences from the Global North, are appropriate for analysing contentious politics in the South, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In order to answer this question, the article discusses whether social movements in Africa differ fundamentally from those in other world regions. Four main a…
Gold is not for eating
This article presents large-scale gold mining and related conflicts in Burkina Faso - a paramount example of the recent commodity boom and its pervasive socio-economic effects. Mobilization around the Houndé gold mine, located 250 km southwest of the capital Ouagadougou, is depicted as an illustration
Die Gelegenheit nutzen: Die Evaluation der Friedens- und Konfliktforschung durch den Wissenschaftsrat aus der Perspektive der Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (AFK)
In diesem Forumsbeitrag kommentieren wir die aktuelle Evaluation der Friedens- und Konfliktforschung in Deutschland durch den Wissenschaftsrat als (ehemalige) Vorsitzende der Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (AFK e. V.). Wir reflektieren, was die Evaluation aus der Perspektive der AFK für das Forschungsfeld der Friedens- und Konfliktforschung und für den Verband selbst bedeutet. Dazu stellen wir dar, wie die AFK als Fachver…
Not normal, not just: Protest against large-scale mining from a moral economy perspective
This article investigates conflicts over large-scale mining through the lens of E. P. Thompson’s concept of the moral economy. The concept proves fruitful for an analysis of the local impacts of fundamental political-economic transformations, notably how people are affected by, and react to, structural changes. The recent global “commodity boom” and the related expansion of large-scale mining is a case in point. I refer to the moral economy to an…
Analysing land conflicts in times of global crises
Handbook of Critical Agrarian Studies
Exploring the emerging and vibrant field of critical agrarian studies, this comprehensive Handbook offers interdisciplinary insights from both leading scholars and activists to understand agrarian life, livelihoods, formations and processes of change. It highlights the development of the field, which is characterized by theoretical and methodological pluralism and innovation.
Extractivism, informal work and strategies for political-economic transformation
This issue focuses on two topics that are central to political economy in general, and African political economy in particular, and that have been intensively discussed in ROAPE over many decades: extractivism and the informal economy. Both are structural economic features all over the continent, and manifold social struggles relate to them. '[E]xtractivism is the dominant feature of most African economies. The absence of processes of structural …
Peasant Resistance in Burkina Faso's Cotton Sector
This article examines how and why smallholder peasants mobilize for collective action to put forward their claims. Taking the resistance by cotton farmers in Burkina Faso as a case study, it demonstrates that institutions of neoliberal governance – which are presented by their proponents as making governance more “effective” by improving the participation of various public and private stakeholders in different degrees – nevertheless fail to repre…
Political science (29 works) · Economics (19 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Political economy (15 works) · Politics (14 works) · Geography (13 works) · Development economics (12 works) · Law (11 works) · African Studies and Ethnography (10 works) · Law (9 works)