This seminar will discuss how the present integration of Southern Africa’s mineral resources into broader processes of global capitalist restructuring and geopolitical conflict is reconfiguring the terrain of developmentalism in South Africa and Zambia. It argues that these reconfigurations should temper optimism for a green ‘developmental regionalism’ agenda. Whilst the Zambian state is enjoying historically novel degrees of agency in the present, that agency is unlikely to be exercised in a manner conducive to regional developmentalism. On the other hand, the South African state suffers from limited coherence and capacity to engage in a regional ‘green’ mineral’s industrial strategy. These case studies highlight the importance of anchoring regional industrialization proposals in a concrete analysis of comparative political economy realities.

Michael Smith is a Lecturer in Economic Development at the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and a PhD Candidate in Sociology at York University. Michael’s research examines the political economy of mining and industrialization in Southern Africa with a particular focus on Zambia and South Africa.