Professor Sarah Bracking
Position | SARCHi Chair in Applied Poverty Reduction Assessment | |
Discipline | Development Studies | |
Phone | 031 260 1544 | |
bracking@ukzn.ac.za | ||
Campus | Howard College | |
Office Address | 809, 8th Floor, Denis Shepstone Building |
Bio
- Professor Sarah Bracking currently holds the
University of KwaZulu-Natal SARCHi Chair in Applied Poverty Reduction
Assessment, under which a programme of research is being implemented in
order to help reduce the scale and scope of poverty in South Africa by
designing better means to assess policy intervention and implementation.
This programme begins from the concept of poverty as multi-dimentional
and multi-causal, such that research covers the economic, political and
environmental domains, focusing on how we can ensure poverty reduction
at both the micro and macro scales. - Professor Bracking graduated from York University in the UK (BA Hons
Politics), then Leeds University (MA, International Resources and
Development; PhD on Structural Adjustment, Business and the State in
Zimbabwe 1991-7). She worked as a Research Fellow at the Centre for
Democratization Studies at Leeds University, principally on the
International IDEA State of Democracy Project. She then moved to the
University of Manchester where she was a member of the Chronic Poverty
Research Centre (2001-2006) and Global Poverty Research Group (2001 –
2007), held a number of research grants, was promoted to Professor in
International Development in the School of Environment and Development,
and is the Research Director of the Leverhulme Centre for the Study of
Value at www.thestudyofvalue.org. - Her most recent work has focused specifically on the developmental
co-benefits of climate finance designated for adaptation projects,
moving from a twenty year career of research in development finance
generically. Research on this is ongoing in the Leverhulme Centre for
the Study of Value, funded from a major programme grant award from the
Leverhulme Trust (RP2012-V-041). This research is critically exploring
the social articulation of valuation in the development, environment and
conservation domains. Professor Bracking also has ongoing theoretical
and field research on private sector development and corruption in the
extractive industries and infrastructural build projects in South
Africa, funded by the Michelsen Institute. - From 2009-2012, Professor Bracking worked as Principle Investigator
on a number of research grants: on reform of European development
finance institutions (DFIs) and their use of tax havens, funded by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Norway (2010); on development and
environmental impact assessment in development finance institutions
funded by Norwegian Church Aid (2011); and on a community based system
for the treatment of HIV, funded by the European Union and ACP (2008-).
She was invited as an Expert Witness to the UK Parliamentary Committee
on International Development (December 2010) because of her research
work on the CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution. She has
also worked with ZIMCODD on debt write-off (2008); Counter Balance on
reform of the European Investment Bank (2009); and Advocates for
International Development (A4ID) as a trainer (2006 -). Sarah is editor
of Corruption and Development (Palgrave, 2007) and author of Money and
Power (Pluto, 2009), and is currently completing a book on The
Financialisation of Power in Africa (Routledge, forthcoming). She is
also a Columnist at The Africa Report, www.theafricareport.com/columns
Publications
Book Chapters
- Bracking, S. (2014) Corruption and development: the mutable edges of morality in modern markets. In: Heywood, Paul (ed) The Routledge International Handbook on Political Corruption. London: Routledge.
- Bracking, S. (2014) Financial flows and secrecy jurisdictions in times of crisis. In Hammar, A. (ed.) Displacement Economies, London, Uppsala: Zedpress, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet. (Africa Now series).
Articles
- Bracking, S. (2015). Performativity in the Green Economy: how far does climate finance create a fictive economy? Third World Quarterly, 36(12), 2337-2357.
- Bracking, S. (2014). The Anti-politics of Climate Finance: The Creation and Performativity of the Green Climate Fund, Antipode, 47, pages 36–302, doi:10.1111/anti.12123
- Bracking, S. (2014) The anti-politics of climate finance: The Creation and Performativity of the Green Climate Fund. Antipode. doi: 10.1111/anti.12123
Monographs
- Fredriksen, A. Bracking, S. Greco, E. Igoe, J.J. Morgan, R. and S. Sullivan (2014) A conceptual map for the study of value An initial mapping of concepts for the project ‘Human, non-human and environmental value systems: an impossible frontier?’ Leverhulme Centre for the Study of Value Working Paper Series. Available from http://thestudyofvalue.org/publications/
- Bracking, S. Brockington, D. Bond, P. Büscher, B. Igoe, J.J. Sullivan, S. and P. Woodhouse (2014) Initial research design: ‘Human, non-human and environmental value systems: an impossible frontier?’ Leverhulme Centre for the Study of Value. Available from http://thestudyofvalue.org/publications/
- Bracking, Sarah and Sharife, Khadija (2014). Rough and polished: A case study of the diamond pricing and valuation system. Manchester: Leverhulme Centre for the Study of Value (CSV Working paper series, 4).
- Bracking, Sarah and Sharife, Khadija (2014). Rough and polished: A case study of the diamond pricing and valuation system. Manchester: Leverhulme Centre for the Study of Value (CSV Working paper series, 4).
Reports
- Bracking, S. (2015). The anti-politics of the Green Climate Fund: what is left to negotiate? in Temper L., and Gilbertson T., (eds). Refocusing resistance to climate justice: COPing in, COPing out and beyond Paris, EJOLT report no. 23, 2015, pages 34-41.
- Bracking , S. and Dorsey, M.K. (2015) Escaping the 20th Century Neoliberal Prison Complex: What should climate justice organizations do with the Green Climate Fund in the 21st Century? in Joanna Cabello and Tamra Gilbertson (eds.) Paths Beyond Paris: Movements, Action and Solidarity towards Climate Justice, Carbon Trade Watch ps. 47-50
- (2015) Philanthropy and Development in Southern Africa, Southern Africa Trust, Pretoria, available from http://www.southernafricatrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Executive-Summary.pdf
- (2015) Philanthropy and illicit financial flows: options for African philanthropy to support better economic governance and reduce illicit funding flows, Southern Africa Trust, Pretoria, available from http://www.southernafricatrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Paper-Two-Illicit-Financial-Flows.pdf
- (2015) Clairwood Survey: community views of the value of Clairwood in the context of current development plans for Durban port expansion, Research Report 2015 No 1, available from https://appliedpovertyreduction.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/emailing-clairwood_qual_report-finished-minus-frequency-table1.pdf with Kathleen Diga, Pia Falschebner, Mandy Lombo, Tawonga Rushambwa, and Ayanda Tshabalala
- 2015) Descriptive Statistics – The developmental value of the Durban port expansion project Research Report 2015 No 2, available from https://appliedpovertyreduction.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/technical-paper-2-final.pdf with Kathleen Diga
- (2015) Poverty reduction co-benefits through indigenous knowledge in climate change adaptation A study within eThekwini municipality, Technical Report 4, available from https://appliedpovertyreduction.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/technical-paper-4-final.pdf with Kathleen Diga, Mandy Lombo, Siyabonga Ntombela and Mvuselelo Ngcoya
Magazine Articles:
- (2015), “They have their own people they want to blame”, The Africa Report, 25th August, available from http://www.theafricareport.com/Columns/they-have-their-own-people-they-want-to-blame.html
- (2015) “Eskom’s energy saving sarcasm.” The Africa Report, 5th January, available from http://www.theafricareport.com/Columns/eskoms-energy-saving-sarcasm.html
- (2015) “Energy, Green Bonds, bubbles and torrents”, 13th February, available from http://www.theafricareport.com/Columns/energy-green-bonds-bubbles-and-torrents.html