Plundering Africa–Income deflation and unequal ecological exchange under structural adjustment programmes

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Plundering Africa–Income deflation and unequal ecological exchange under structural adjustment programmes

Presenting new research, Dylan Sullivan and Jason Hickel mount a devastating critique of the impact of structural adjustment in Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. Drawing on recent data on Africa’s material resource use, Sullivan and Hickel show how during this period structural adjustment programmes led to a significant increase in ‘unequal ecological exchange’, a process whereby African countries were compelled to export more materials, energy, and