Ben Radley

1/8 I'm 40 today, so please cheer me up by sharing the news that my book is out on 16 November, drawing on a decade of research in 🇨🇩. The book foregrounds the disruption created by foreign corporate-led mining & argues for a shift towards domestic forms of ownership & control.

The brilliant Farwa Sial on the growing role of private equity in the global South, writing for the Developing Economics blog: developingeconomics.org/2025/07/23/pri…

Understanding how food access in Bukavu🇨🇩 is hindered by extractivism, protracted conflict& demographic changes (both natural & war-induced) has been a complex journey. Here is our first output: african-cities.org/new-research-u… Big thx to Prof @TolhurstRachel for hosting me 4w in Liv🇬🇧...

Have written about this elsewhere but this idea that 'large-scale & small-scale mining operations can partner & flourish together' assumes small-scale happy to stay small. Risks cementing subordination of small (local/nat.) to large (typically foreign). sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

“The wealthiest create CO2 through: consumption; controlling production; and corralling democracy. The proposed solutions—expand the welfare state and build a “big green state”—create powerful enemies. That is the planetary impasse we find ourselves in.” phenomenalworld.org/analysis/globa…

🌏China’s role in critical minerals is discussed in our new (open access) @OUPAcademic book. Free to download via 👉🏼 wider.unu.edu/publication/re…

A new working paper with @CynthKamwengo that hopefully provides some practical examples & ideas for how universities can decolonise, diversify, & update their social science curricula (& possible limits to these efforts): purehost.bath.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles…

Keep an eye out for @ROAPEjournal's upcoming Fanon special issue, due out in December 2025... x.com/ROAPEjournal/s…

100 years ago today, Frantz Fanon was born. Martiniquais by birth, Algerian by struggle #Fanon100 was not only a key thinker of anti-imperialist struggles in Africa and the Global South, but also a revolutionary activist. "What matters is not to know the world but to change it"

Today is the day. After weeks of the various distractions & disturbances that make up academic life, & the worry over a paper that's not moving forward, I have an entire day to write. And here I am, procrastinating, unable to write. Brilliant. Thanks brain.

If you're at @devcomms today/this week, something to check out... x.com/RadleyBen/stat…

Staff or student at @uniofbath? Coming to @devcomms conference at #Bath this week? Download this new (& free!) walking tour app on Android & Apple that celebrates Black histories in the city, from the Roman Empire to the present day. devstud.org.uk/2025/06/13/bla…

Black Histories in Bath is a new walking tour app developed by Uni of Bath researchers in collaboration with Fairfield House and BEMSCA. The self-guided tour highlights the rich but often overlooked contributions of people of African and Caribbean descent to Bath's history.

Fantastic overview of the spread and scale of industrial activity in pre-colonial Africa, including textiles, shipbuilding, construction and glassworking. By Isaac Samuel. africanhistoryextra.com/p/historic-ind…

Cheap lab-grown diamonds are the outcome that the diamond industry has been postponing for over a century: the end of scarcity. I've written about this and the implications for diamond mining countries in @WPReview: worldpoliticsreview.com/diamond-mining…

Not everyday a yet-to-be-presented paper at @hetecon conference makes Guardian lead editorial ""Zambia’s economy is not being plundered by domestic actors but by transnational corporate practices" Happy to have my ticket. No pressure @AndrewM_Fischer! theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

My research of the last 10 years featured in the lead editorial of @guardian, on massive transfers of wealth out of Zambia hidden away on an obscure part of its financial account in the BoP. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

🤔 How has the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s position within the imperial order shaped its current conflict? 🔍 @RadleyBen and Nicholas Fairwood analyze the conflict and the history of imperial intervention and interference in the country. 📑 Read the full @NewLeftReview…

Colonial extraction and unequal exchange have shaped two centuries of North-South inequality. 🧵A thread on a NEW STUDY written with @gatonievas [1/9] 🔗 wid.world/news-article/u…