Professor Ray Bush

Professor of African Studies and Development Politics

Photo of Professor Ray Bush

I work on the political economy of Africa and the Near East. I have had visiting research appointments at the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Oslo and the Social Science Research Centre, American University in Cairo.

I am deputy chair of the journal Review of African Political Economy and I work with the African Studies Association of the UK. I am also series editor of Pluto's, The Third World in Global Politics.

Research Interests

I research the political economy of resources, political and economic reform, rural transformation and resistance.

Prof. Bush talks at an ESRC Centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society (BRASS) seminar exploring practitioner and researcher efforts to elucidate the determinants of success and failure in terms of CSR and engagement in the extractive sector.

Teaching

I teach graduate modules on 'Africa in the Contemporary World' and 'The Political Economy of Resources and Development'.

"My favourite academic was Ray Bush, it was his ability to challenge mainstream thinking which most inspired me!" Sandra Martinsone (Global Development and International Political Economy)

PhD Supervision

I supervise candidates on a broad range of countries and topics in the Global South. These include political economy of reform, resistance and transformation in mainly, but not exclusively, Africa and the Near East.

Key Publications

Books

Bush, R.C and Ayeb, H. ed. (2012) Marginality and Exclusion in Egypt. Zed Books.
Bush, R.C. (2007) Poverty and Neoliberalism : Persistence and Reproduction in the Global South. Pluto Press.
Bush, R.C. ed. (2002) Counter-Revolution in Egypt's Countryside: Land and Farmers in the Era of Economic Reform. Zed Books.
Bush, R.C. (1999) Economic Crisis and the Politics of Reform in Egypt. Westview Press.

Journal Articles

Bush, R.C. (2010) 'Mining in Africa: regulation and development', Review of African Political Economy, 37: 126, 547 - 548.
Bush, R.C. (2008) Soon there will be no-one left to take the corpses to the morgue: Accumulation and Abjection in Ghana's mining Communities, Resources Policy, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2008.02.002, Reference: JRPO437.
Editor of the Special Issue of Review of African Political Economy vol 45, no 117 2008 'Scrambling to the bottom? Mining, Resources and Underdevelopment'
Editor of Review of African Political Economy vol 34, no. 114 2007, 'Class, Resistance and Social Transformation'
Bush, R.C. (2007) Politics, power and poverty: twenty years of agricultural reform and market liberalisation in Egypt. Third World Quarterly, 28(8), pp.1599-1615.
Bush, R.C. (2004) Undermining Africa. Historical Materialism, 12(4), pp. 173-201.