The global economy is changing. Financial mobility and revolutionization of the transportation and telecommunication sectors have made the geographical location of capital, and, in turn, production and service centers unstable, transient and fleeting. This unstable, transient and fleeting nature of capital has benefited certain geographical spaces and social groups over others. The current form of economic development has also produced capital flight, relocation of industries, and major economic crisis, producing geographies of uneven development. How has capitalism changed through time and across diverse geographies? How have democratic processes and market forces exercised multiple forms of power to produce corporate welfarism on the one hand and to transform social welfare on the other? How have local groups confronted or opposed certain forms of capitalism?
These are the questions addressed by the Department of Geography's newest faculty member, Dr. Waquar Ahmed. A geographer trained at Clark University, Ahmed utilizes comparative policy analysis, historical-geographical materialism, and discourse analysis to examine the multiple forms and contradictions of capitalism.
Ahmed's research has largely focused on foreign direct investments in the energy sector (Enron, GE, Bechtel). However, more recently, Ahmed began investigating the privatization of coal mining in India. This research examines the socio-economic and environmental contradictions of coal mining under India's new economic regime, where India abandoned its socialist goals and adopted free market policies. This is the topic of Ahmed, Peet, and Kundu's most recent book India's New Economic Policy: A Critical Analysis. New York and London: Routledge. (Reprinted in 2011 by Rawat Publication, New Delhi, India). In addition, Ahmed is collaborating with more than 50 academics from 16 different countries around the world to examine global economic change and corresponding national policies.
Ahmed has authored and edited several books and research papers on topics ranging from energy policy and foreign direct investments to the rights of indigenous people and social movements. To UNT, Ahmed brings his expertise in geography of development and global economic change, topics students can explore through his courses on Economic Geography, Critical Resource Geography, Global Societies (currently called World Regions) and a forthcoming seminar/course on Theories and Policies of Development.
Photo 1: 'Illegal' coal mining (wages US $1.25 a day) in economically depressed areas of Sripur, West Bengal, India.
Photo 2: Poverty and child labor in coal-mining areas
Photo 3: State's monopoly over violence and police terror in poverty-stricken areas of Kolkata, India.
Photo 4: Poverty and deplorable living conditions in Mumbai, India's financial capital.