Durán Matute

North America

In 2006, the former right-wing Mexican president, Felipe Calderón, decided to formalise a war on drugs to boost the economy and, thus, legitimate the new government after he defeated the progressive candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in a controversial election. Since then, the country has been exposed to terror of every type

Snapshot of a War Against People and Nature: A Chronicle from Mexico

Kutun

WANA

In many countries today states are intervening in social relations with more authoritarian policies in order to overcome economic, political, and social crises. Neoliberalism and authoritarianism are presented as polar opposites in main-stream liberal criticism. The purpose of this article is to emphasise the limitations of such an interpretation by considering the main arguments of the most prominent mainstream critical analyses of authoritarianism in Turkey

Can Mainstream Critical Analyses Explain the State Transformation in Turkey?

Gudavarthy, CPS, JNU

Asia

Counterstrategies need not merely emotionalize protest but to also revolutionize emotions. They need to dig deep into everyday ethics, their presence in common sense, and modes of normative evaluation. This is what happened during the Indian farmers' protests. Three years after they erupted, Ajay Gudavarthy takes a look at the successful mobilization that managed to make a dent in India's authoritarian regime

How the Farmers in India Countered the Populist Authoritarianism of the Right

IRGAC

Global

During one week, "Contesting Authoritarianism: Perspectives from the South" gathered scholars, activists, students, journalists and many other to discuss the various manifestations of authoritarian neoliberalism, reactionary populism, and strategies of resistance. Here you find the video recordings of our discussions.<br>

Contesting Authoritarianism: Perspectives from the South

Events

In 2020, about 23.6% of South Africans experienced moderate to severe food insecurity, while 14.9% experienced severe food insecurity. Therefore, by applying the United Nations’ Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), this paper classifies victims of food insecurity into two groups: those who experienced moderate to severe food insecurity, and those who experienced severe food insecurity

The Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic on South African Food Security

Kennedy Manduna is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow hosted by the Wits School of Governance (WSG) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Kennedy Manduna is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the International Research Group on Authoritarianism and Counter-Strategies of the Rosa Luxemburg-Stiftung, hosted by the Wits School of Governance (WSG) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, under the mentorship of Dr Caryn Abrahams. 

For the past seven years, he has been a researcher, teaching assistant and part-time lecturer within the WSG. He completed his PhD in Political Economy and Public Policy in 2022 at the WSG, working with Prof. Gavin Cawthra, Prof. Patrick Bond and Prof. Erin McCandless. His current research focuses on the intersection of the political economy of extractivism, authoritarianism, indigeneity, economic indigenisation, Rights of the Indigenous People and uneven development. 

Research
Examining the intersectional realities of the rise of authoritarianism, resource nationalism, uneven development and the human rights concerns of the indigenous peoples: Evidence from Zimbabwe’s and South Africa’s experiences with extractive industry indigenisation.

The drivers and motivations for extracting and developing mineral resource endowments and fossil fuels, particularly in the Global South, are benefiting the mining companies and seriously affecting the lives and livelihoods of the Indigenous peoples, with governments playing enabling and active roles in these mining accumulation by dispossession processes. This accumulation logic in today’s mining capitalism results in a tale of treasuries on one pole (i.e. massive accumulation by the mining companies and local politicians) and a tale of tragedies on the other pole (i.e. massive dispossessions and dislocations of the Indigenous peoples). The competing explanation for this mining accumulation by dispossession logic is that much of what is left of these natural resource endowments is situated on Indigenous peoples’ lands. This study, by taking South Africa and Zimbabwe as case studies, is, therefore, examining the intersectional realities of the rise of authoritarianism, resource nationalism, uneven development and the human rights concerns of the indigenous peoples, with Zimbabwe’s and South Africa’s experiences with extractive industry indigenisation as case studies. Furthermore, my account on the intersection of the political economy of extractivism, indigeneity, indigenisation, Rights of the Indigenous People and uneven development, based on my PhD, is currently being turned into a monograph under a contract with Routledge Press. Other research interests include public policy, social contract, political settlements, conflict, participation, solidarity and social cohesion.

Kennedy Manduna

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Firoozeh Farvardin is a postdoc researcher/activist working on gender/sexual (counter) strategies of authoritarian neoliberalism at IRGAC hosted by the MERGE.

Hugo Fanton is the State Coordinator of the Central de Movimentos Populares (Popular Movements Central) in São Paulo

Sara Cufré is a feminist researcher from Argentina. She holds a degree in Political Science and a PhD. in Social Sciences (Universidad de Buenos Aires)

Ülker Sözen received her PhD in Sociology from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Turkey in 2017.

Snapshot of a War Against People and Nature: A Chronicle from Mexico

Can Mainstream Critical Analyses Explain the State Transformation in Turkey?

How the Farmers in India Countered the Populist Authoritarianism of the Right

Contesting Authoritarianism: Perspectives from the South

Featured

Fellows

Publications

Can Mainstream Critical Analyses Explain the State Transformation in Turkey?

How the Farmers in India Countered the Populist Authoritarianism of the Right

Featured

Fellows

Publi­cations

Publications