Assembling effective industrial policy in Africa: an agenda for action

SUMMARY

Actor–network theory can be used to help understand effective industrialisation strategies. This paper deploys and develops this theory through the idea of multiple axes of strategic coupling, with reference to Ethiopia in particular.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Stefan Ouma, Leo Zeilig and the journal referee for their comments and to my son Daire for his help with the graphic.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Note on contributor

Pádraig Carmody is an associate professor of Geography at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and is also a visiting associate professor in the Department of Geography, Energy and Environmental Management at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He has published seven books, including The new scramble for Africa (2nd ed., Polity, 2016), The rise of the BRICS in Africa (Zed, 2013) and, with Jim Murphy, Africa’s information revolution (Wiley-Blackwell, 2015).

Notes

1 Some prominent examples of these include the Nigerian-based Dangote group, which has operations across the continent and grew initially on the basis of extensive protection in its home market, for cement for example, and the Madhvani group of Uganda, which is involved in sugar and chemical production amongst other subsectors.

2 However, there are also counterexamples of Mauritian clothing companies manufacturing in Madagascar for global buyers (Morris, Plank, and Staritz 2015) and of smaller companies, such as Sole Rebels in Ethiopia, which now sells its shoes in 30 countries around the world (Nsehe 2012).

3 A rent is an above-market rate of return.

4 Product cycle theory posits that industrial production moves from initial higher-cost centres of innovation to lower-cost locations as technology diffuses and rents are dissipated.

5 Although current Ethiopian development is also associated with accumulation by dispossession (Harvey 2003). The global commodification of food and related price increases have spurred ‘land grabbing’ in the country, creating labour; an enactment of global commodification chains. Land rights have recently sparked protests in the country and a government crackdown. If conflict were to substantially escalate it might undermine industrial development. ‘Developmental states’ are often highly authoritarian. For example, the South Korean state massacred workers in Gwangju in 1980.

6 The historically and geographically evolving laws of motion of the capitalist mode of production on a world scale.

Additional information

Funding

Thanks also to Enterprise Ireland for facilitating the writing of this paper through a grant on ‘Green Agro-Industrial Innovation in Africa’ [grant number CS/2015/1908E]. The views expressed here do not reflect those of Enterprise Ireland.