Lisa Thompson

Background

About Lisa Thompson

My research interests include the intersection between global political economy dynamics and development. I have been involved in both meta analytical and more fieldwork orientated research on development (my PhD focused on SADCs contribution to development and incorporated a strong gender focus, looking at the links between macro development polices and micro development conditions). I have been working as a political economist at UWC since 1995. As a political economist, my focus is on the interplay between formal democratic processes as they infuse the every day lived realities of different sectors of society. My field research scales global policy narratives on development into local contexts. Exploring how voices from the margins of the formal economy grapple with structural inequality in their interactions with the institutions of the state. Currently, my research focuses on new narratives of development in the Global South, particularly as these policies intersect with local economic development. Could the Global South blocs form a sufficiently powerful counterbalance to western neocolonial and neopatrimonial forms of capitalist expansion and attendant class and race based sociology-economic rights discrepancies? More on this research to follow here.