14/04/2026 - From Development to Diversification and Sustainability: The Changing Discourse of Gabon’s Rentier Economy

WHEN: Tuesday 7 April 2026, 13:30–14:50

WHERE: MUP Prague-Jarov building, Učňovská 100/1, Room no. 102

Under the banner of “development,” most African states since the mid-twentieth century sought in various forms to convert their natural resources into economic growth. It had been a two-pronged approach that both appeased an increasingly hegemonic international financial architecture as well as newly independent populations desirous of the good life. For countries like Gabon, however, the rents accrued through resource exportation were in large part restricted to a political class–so-called “rentier” political economies developed. Despite this, relatively few in the central African state contested the inequities of rentierism until recently. As Gabon has increasingly sought to diversify its economy “away” from oil and “towards” mining, ecotourism, and forestry, both the government and foreign companies have brandished terms like “green energy” and “sustainability” to justify what amounts to – at the end of the day – updated rentierism. In this talk, I hope to discuss how avant-garde terms and symbols – seemingly innocuous – are coopted to reproduce the status quo and eschew shifting norms, and why we should learn to approach such buzzwords critically.