Ray Bush

Ray Bush

Raymond Carey Bush is a Professor of African Studies at the School of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) at the University of Leeds. He is also a member of the Leeds University Centre for African Studies (LUCAS) advisory board and deputy chair of the Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE). Bush is married to Dr. Mette Wiggen, a fellow academic at POLIS. Bush earned his PhD on 'The colonial factor and social transformation on the Gold Coast to 1930' at the University of Leeds in 1984. He has taught the postgraduate modules 'Political Economy of Resources and Development' and 'Africa in the Contemporary World' since he took over from Morris Szeftel in 2005, and is currently the programme manager for the MA in Global Development and Africa. Szeftel and Bush have had a close academic relationship, working together on the editorial board of ROAPE as well as publishing several articles together. Between 2000-2003, Bush also worked as a researcher for the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) on the Civil Society Strategies and Movements for Rural Asset Redistribution and Improved Livelihoods project, which examined the efforts of civil society groups to influence policy and institutional reform. In addition, he is currently a member of the Global Development and Justice research group at the University of Leeds. Bush has had visiting research appointments at the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Oslo and the Social Science Research Centre, American University in Cairo. He has written a number of books, including Poverty and Neoliberalism: Persistence and Reproduction in the Global South (2007) and Counter-Revolution in Egypt's Countryside: Land and Farmers in the Era of Economic Reform (2002). He is an outspoken critic of neoliberalism and the capitalist system, and has published extensively on the subject of their negative consequences for communities in developing countries, in particular the effect of gold mining in Ghana and the plight of the Galamsey. Bush is the series editor of Pluto Press' series 'The Third World in Global Politics'. Bush has also written for The Guardian with Yao Graham.

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