I am an anthropologist with a long and multifaceted experience in researching Africa and in acting as the PI for research projects on Africa. Thematically I have examined various societal changes that take place in the coming together of global and local regimes of economic and socio-cultural value. My specific research topics include the following: women traders and socio-economic empowerment in Tanzania; youth cultures' and culture industries' social and economic significance in South Africa; music industry structures, practices and value chains in South Africa and Europe; clothing and fashion industry-related entrepreneurships in South Africa and Tanzania; emerging black middle classes. I am fluent in KiSwahili language.

Projects

Youth music and the construction of social subjectivities and communities in post-apartheid South Africa

My research has two main streams, both of which focus on international development and poverty alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa. First, I take a qualitative approach to understanding the “natural” course of entrepreneurship in Ghana; that is, how entrepreneurship happens in the absence of international development efforts. This research stream grew out of my frustration with seeing development organizations consistently teaching entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa in much the same way it is taught in Canada, or Finland. My second research stream focuses on collaboratively working with international development organizations to solve their pressing challenges. This generally involves using randomized field experiments to test designed solutions under real-world characteristics. The goal here is to bridge the gap between producing work that is theoretically interesting, and producing work that is practically important. Two ongoing projects of this nature are happening in Ghana and Tanzania.