Sign in

Marcus Power

@marcusjpower.bsky.social
1.3K followers 1.4K following 39 posts

Professor of Human Geography @ Durham University. The geopolitics-development nexus | China-Africa relations | South-South flows | energy & infrastructural geographies www.durham.ac.uk/staff/marcus-power

PostsRepliesMedia
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Details of a candlelight vigil being held in Durham next week in response to the recent Nepal-Tibet flood. The vigil provides an opportunity to remember those affected and show our support and solidarity.
000
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Open letter from Irish sportspeople calling for #boycottIsrael notes “the Ireland we want represented is the one that remembers its roots in anti-colonial and anti-imperial resistance” 🇮🇪 #StopTheGame www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...
bbc.co.uk
Republic of Ireland: Irish sportspeople urge men's football team to boycott Israel game
More than 160 Irish sportspeople sign an open letter to urge the Republic of Ireland senior men's team to refuse to participate in their upcoming Nations League games against Israel.
001
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Really sad to hear about Glen Hansard's passing. I've always loved his music, "Bird of Sorrow" was a particular favourite. Rest in peace. #GlenHansard youtu.be/uIGCpWi5dIs?...
youtu.be
Glen Hansard - Bird of Sorrow
YouTube video by Long Man
030
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Forthcoming workshop in Durham on ‘Historicising the China-Africa relationship’, taking place on August 26th.
062
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
new book chapter!... 📖 ‘Reimagining disaster preparedness in Nepal’ We focus on a pan-Himalayan ritual known as the 𝘉𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘫𝘢 as an articulation of Indigenous disaster theory and disaster prevention active in the Himalayan region, specifically within Nepal. www.routledge.com/Reimagining-...
routledge.com
Reimagining Disasters: Voices in the Pluriverse
Reimagining Disasters builds on the momentum gained by the 2019 Disaster Studies Manifesto, which aims to inspire and inform more respectful, reciprocal and genuine relationships between home and visi...
061
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
Força, Mambas! 🇲🇿 www.theguardian.com/football/202...
theguardian.com
Afcon roundup: Mozambique stun Gabon to end 40-year wait for win
Faisal Bangal, Geny Catamo and Diogo Calila scored to earn Mozambique a 3-2 victory against Gabon to give them their first win in 17 matches at the tournament
030
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
This looks like a really important and timely resource with varied perspectives from different backgrounds, disciplines and geographies. Looking forward to reading!
040
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Excited to share a new open access article that provides a critical, policy-relevant & geographically grounded analysis of Mozambique's energy transitions. Written with Lorraine Howe, @joshkirshner.bsky.social & Carlos Shenga, just published in Applied Geography www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Uneven development and the geographies of energy transition in Mozambique
In Mozambique, sustainable energy access is an increasing priority for a diverse range of actors seeking to improve livelihoods and stimulate economic…
082
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
“If we are honest about Britain’s place in the global strategic landscape today, the idea that it is a prime espionage target stretches credulity”
040
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Further reason to watch this stunning indictment of military homophobia: www.thewrap.com/pentagon-boo...
thewrap.com
Pentagon Slams Netflix's 'Woke Garbage' Gay Military Series 'Boots,'  Vows to Restore 'Warrior Ethos' to the Military
Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson says the U.S. military does not condone Netflix's "ideological agenda" depicted in "Boots"
020
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Interesting article by Anek Rajbhandari on the mental health impacts on survivors of climate induced disasters: nepalitimes.com/news/the-uns...
nepalitimes.com
The unseen wounds of climate disasters
040
Reposted by Marcus Power
Duncan Money @mininghistory.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
The artist Sana Ginwalla has created an online photo archive based on 1000 uncollected negatives, slides and prints that she found in the attic of Lusaka’s oldest photo studios. What a great initiative: www.zambiabelonging.com
zambiabelonging.com
Zambia Belonging
A counter-archive of found and crowd-sourced photographs from Zambia’s past.
02212
Reposted by Marcus Power
TIBG @tibg.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
New in TIBG! Geography in the World, part 3: Area Studies Han Cheng & @deensharp.bsky.social's collection draws together authors from Egypt, Singapore, China, South Africa & Russia to explore non-Western geography's relationship with Area Studies. Read all papers here ⬇️ tinyurl.com/5n72yt46
A graphic advertising a new collection of papers in Transactions called 'Geography in the World 3: Area Studies' with the title curved around a black and white image of the globe in the centre, and the Transactions logo next to the Royal Geographical Society logo at the top of the red background. With contributions from: Aya Nassar, Brenda S.A. Yeoh, Deen Sharp, Han Cheng, Maano Ramutsindela & Vera Smirnova
1138
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
youtu.be/dhuC7zQRNvc?...
youtu.be
GenZ hopes for an inclusive new Nepal: State of Southasia #32
YouTube video by Himal Southasian
020
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
‘Washington losing primacy, Beijing preparing to take its place. For Africa, however, this framing is unsatisfactory. It risks reducing the continent to a spectator in a drama staged by others’:
021
Reposted by Marcus Power
Mattering Press @matteringpress.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
📚BOOK LAUNCH 📚 We’re delighted to announce the publication of 🌍Technoscientific Globalisation from Below🌎 Open access&free to download via @matteringpress.bsky.social www.matteringpress.org/books/techno... Edited by Mathieu Quet, Koichi Kameda, Jessica Pourraz & Yves-Marie Rault-Chodankar
matteringpress.org
Technoscientific Globalisation from Below
1144
Reposted by Marcus Power
Don't Gas Africa @dontgasafrica.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
We welcome much of the #AddisDeclaration, but let’s be clear: “transition fuel” is too often code for gas. Gas is not a bridge, it’s a dead end. #ACS2
002
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
Pranaya Rana’s excellent explainer on everything that happened this week in Nepal, including the first woman prime minister in its history, and asks important questions for the future of the country: www.himalmag.com/politics/nep...
himalmag.com
Nepal’s staggering journey from Gen Z protests to new government
Nepal’s staggering journey from Gen Z protests to new government
020
Reposted by Marcus Power
MAKS 26 👀🇺🇦 @maks23.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
More from Nepal 🇳🇵👀
30658208
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
Interesting claims & counter claims around Nepal’s relations to China’s Global Security Initiative (GSI) following PM’s visit to China: kathmandupost.com/national/202...
kathmandupost.com
Nepal officials reject Chinese claim on GSI
‘Why should we issue a statement when we’ve not even discussed GSI and GCI?’ says a Nepali delegate in China.
020
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Great to attend an event yesterday in Kathmandu on the geopolitical dilemmas created for #Nepal around the Lipulekh pass and the territorial disputes with India. Insightful comments from speakers Sudheer Sharma & Rajib Neupane
051
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
Good to be engaged in a thoughtful and enriching discussion today with Rupak Sapkota, former Foreign Affairs Adviser to the PM of Nepal. Our conversation focused on the dynamics around Nepal’s co-operation with foreign partners, delving into wider global and regional drivers and dynamics.
050
Reposted by Marcus Power
Jack Taggart @jacktaggart.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
📣 New article w/ @iliasalami.bsky.social & @tomchodor.bsky.social on the return of industrial policy globally @globalpolicy.bsky.social. Does this signal a 'New Washington Consensus'? And does the return of industrial policy 'rebuild the ladder' of economic development? 🔗➡️ tinyurl.com/yk2wvttc 1/12
32113
Reposted by Marcus Power
Francis Masse @geofrancismasse.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
New article🚨 Demilitarizing Conservation A labour of love w L Lunstrum @ashavin.bsky.social A Dutta @esthermarijnen.bsky.social T Mushonga F Matose For a more robustly care-full conservation Demilitarization based on ethics/politics of care/nonviolence @pollenetwork.bsky.social shorturl.at/Wsl9m
tandfonline.com
Demilitarizing Conservation
Many national parks and other protected areas (PAs) are experiencing an intensification of military actors, logics, and partnerships across the globe. This amounts to one of the most consequential ...
0105
Reposted by Marcus Power
Jessica DiCarlo @jessicadicarlo.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Over the past 2 decades, China has become Laos’s top investor, main creditor, and 2nd-largest trade partner. In a new report, @profjulietlu.bsky.social and I unpack Chinese investment across four land-intensive sectors: agriculture & plantations, mining, infrastructure & SEZs. tinyurl.com/kw5vteem
163
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
“I call for a decolonial consciousness that interrogates the historical roots of marginalization in order to reconceptualize, reimagine, and rewrite dominant discourses on resilience in Africa”
062
Reposted by Marcus Power
Geography at Durham @geogdurham.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
The UK Alliance for Disaster Research conference will take place 4-5 September 2025. It will be hosted by the @ihrr.bsky.social at Durham Uni and is titled “Pathways to Practice and Resilience: UK Interdisciplinary Hazard and Disaster Research on the National and Global Stage”: tinyurl.com/62mfc7pw
042
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
As well as some loss of life the severe flooding in Rasuwa in #Nepal has caused damage to a number of key infrastructures of China-Nepal co-operation. Interesting to note the militarised discourse around talk of deploying rescue operations on a ‘war footing’: kathmandupost.com/national/202...
120
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
River basins of Africa 🌍 A stunning aerial visual showing the continent’s waterways. According to UNEP, there are 63 transboundary river basins in Africa, covering 64% of the continent’s land area. #weekendvibes #water #africa #rivers #climatechange Credit: Grasshopper Geography
051
Reposted by Marcus Power
Tansy Hoskins 🍉 @tansyhoskins.org · 09/06/2025
Just published a new investigation into textile waste on @ecoage.bsky.social with my colleague Arun Karki in Nepal: Sandwiched between manufacturing powerhouses China and India, Nepal faces a relentless influx of cheap, toxic fast fashion exports: eco-age.com/nepal-the-fr...
eco-age.com
Nepal: The Front Line of the Fast Fashion Crisis – Eco Age
083
Reposted by Marcus Power
Justin Pearce @justinpearce.bsky.social · 15/06/2025
In Luanda for the launch of this edited volume on #Angola after Dos Santos, produced in record time in Portuguese & English with chapters by Angolan & foreign scholars. Both versions in the link. My chapter is on the politics of public memory 50 years after independence. www.cmi.no/publications...
cmi.no
Angola after dos Santos: An anthology on continuity and change
As Angola celebrates its 50th anniversary as an independent nation, it is timely to provide an assessment of the state of political, s...
0173
Reposted by Marcus Power
Roland Bleiker @bleiker.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Here a short blog sumarising a chapter that Emma Hutchison and I wrote and that has now come out: “Humanitarian Photography” in Allbeson (ed) Picturing Peace (Bloomsbury 2024). This has been in the making since 2018 but we hope it remains relevant. www.rolandbleiker.com/blog/humanit...
rolandbleiker.com
Humanitarian Photography: From Mediating Suffering to Visualising Peace — Roland Bleiker
This is a blog summary of an essay that Emma Hutchison and Roland Bleiker wrote and that has now come out after Emma’s passing: a chapter on Humanitarian Photography for Tom Allbeson, Pippa Oldfield a...
092
Reposted by Marcus Power
Joshua Kirshner @joshkirshner.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Happy to share an article on green electrification in Mozambique, just published online today... www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Harnessing the sun – addressing sociotechnical barriers to off-grid solar power deployment in Mozambique
Mozambique has substantial solar power potential (23,000GWe) yet only 83MWe of installed capacity (representing 2% of the total 3623MWe generation capacity). Meanwhile, 44% of the population has el...
182
Reposted by Marcus Power
Neil Renic @ncrenic.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
Soviet poster, 1986
822735
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
New CODESRIA bulletin themed around ‘Mozambique: Reflections by Intellectuals on Post-Electoral Violence’: codesria.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?...
codesria.us19.list-manage.com
No. 2 (2025): CODESRIA Bulletin, No 2, 2025: NÚMERO ESPECIAL MOÇAMBIQUE - Visão de alguns intelectuais moçambicanos sobre a violência pós-eleitoral | CODESRIA Bulletin
010
Reposted by Marcus Power
EADI @eadi.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Can Postdevelopment actually be understood as being within the scope of development theories, or is it something completely different? Aram Ziai explores in our latest blog www.developmentresearch.eu?p=2245
developmentresearch.eu
Is Postdevelopment a Theory of Development? Situating Postdevelopment in Social Theory
By Aram Ziai Four decades after its beginnings, postdevelopment (PD) has become an established approach in development theory. Its core claim that we should ‘reject the entire paradigm of developme…
042
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Ruth First seminar event at The Lindisfarne centre in Durham on June 25th, 5-7pm, can be watched online too:
011
Reposted by Marcus Power
David Storey @davidstoreygeog.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
"It has not just been a travel document, but often a declaration of hope in a better future for those who left Ireland’s shores, or a reclaiming of identity by many of those in the Irish diaspora today" @markhennessy.bsky.social on 100 yrs of the Irish passport www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...
irishtimes.com
The Irish passport at 100: Not just a travel document but a declaration of hope and of reclaiming identity
A new exhibition traces the Irish passport’s journey from independence to biometric holograms
011
Reposted by Marcus Power
Mike Hudema @mikehudema.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
Huge win. Ecuadorians have voted in a historic referendum to halt the development of all new oilwells in the Yasuní national park in the Amazon, one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet: buff.ly/UmLwia3 Protect people and the planet. #ActOnClimate
112233
Marcus Power @marcusjpower.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Ngũgĩ’s work was incredible, so many insights, his razor sharp satire was so richly provocative, he was such an influence on so many. He will be sorely missed. I love this photo of him as a student at Leeds in the 1960s:
061
Reposted by Marcus Power
Jack Taggart @jacktaggart.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
CfP for the 5th Global Policy North workshop at the University of Edinburgh and hosted by @policyrelevant.bsky.social. Submit your abstracts here and details below: tinyurl.com/awckrjjk
011
Reposted by Marcus Power
Jack Taggart @jacktaggart.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
8/ The result? A development finance landscape shaped not by neat convergence or competition between donors, but by productive incoherence—an ambiguous space of constraint and possibility.
101
Reposted by Marcus Power
Jack Taggart @jacktaggart.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
7/ Mozambique presents a hybrid case. CDF supported a shift toward ‘mega-project developmentalism’ in extractives and infrastructure. Yet this hasn’t translated into greater policy autonomy—debt burdens & elite capture persist.
111
Reposted by Marcus Power
Jack Taggart @jacktaggart.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
6/ Heavily aid-dependent, Malawi has used CDF to diversify financing, particularly for infrastructure. But deeper constraints persist—policy space remains fragmented, shaped by donor preferences and institutional limitations.
101
Reposted by Marcus Power
Jack Taggart @jacktaggart.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
5/ Ethiopia stands out for its longstanding policy autonomy. Leveraging geopolitical importance & strong state capacity, Ethiopia uses CDF to reinforce its developmental model—not replace it. CDF complements rather than drives its policy space.
101
Reposted by Marcus Power
Jack Taggart @jacktaggart.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
4/ Drawing on an exploratory elite survey and case studies of Ethiopia, Malawi, and Mozambique, we show how countries navigate this fragmented landscape—not passively receive it.
101
Reposted by Marcus Power
Jack Taggart @jacktaggart.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
3/ We argue that the internal political economy, historical legacies, and global structural positioning of recipient states matter far more than donor intentions and shifts in the external financing environment. These domestic factors mediate how external financing is internalised and acted upon.
101
Reposted by Marcus Power
Jack Taggart @jacktaggart.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
2/ Rather than triggering wholesale transformation, Chinese development finance contributes to incremental, context-specific adaptations. Policy space doesn’t simply expand or contract—it shifts unevenly across countries and sectors.
111
Reposted by Marcus Power
Jack Taggart @jacktaggart.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
1/ How does Chinese development finance affect policy space across Sub-Saharan Africa? In our new article in the Journal of International Development, Han Cheng, @marcusjpower.bsky.social and I explore this through Grabel’s concept of productive incoherence. 🔗 doi.org/10.1002/jid....
doi.org
Chinese Development Finance and African Policy Space: Towards Productive Incoherence?
How does Chinese Development Finance influence perceptions of policy space across Sub-Saharan Africa? This paper employs Grabel's concept of ‘productive incoherence’ to both describe the ‘new develop...
133
Reposted by Marcus Power
Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
The Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène earned his reputation as the father of African cinema with a series of brilliant movies. Socialist and anti-colonial politics had a profound influence on Sembène, who was also one of Africa’s great novelists.
jacobin.com
Senegal’s Ousmane Sembène Was a True Cinematic Revolutionary
The Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène earned his reputation as the father of African cinema with a series of brilliant movies. Socialist and anti-colonial politics had a profound influence on Sembèn...
0142