Woher der Wind weht in Westafrika

Abstract

If social movements in West Africa are really on a rise one may use the categories of regulation theory to understand some of the backgrounds of this rise. The relatively stable formation that came into being in the 1990s with the African version of the neoliberal state at its center is coming to its end. It was able to integrate and tame social movements in its regulatory institutions. However, the rise of movements such as those against the high prices of basic necessities and those of peasants against landgrabbing and for a re-appropriation of family based agriculture are indicators of its disintegration.