Bryn Mawr College

Abdulrazak Karriem

My research and teaching interests are in the areas of international development, social movements,  urbanization, and global environmental change. These interests draw on activist participation in community struggles against apartheid as well as professional work experience in the Departments of Land Affairs (on rural development) and Constitutional Development (on provincial and municipal governance) in the Nelson Mandela government in South Africa. Prior to joining the Growth and Structure of Cities Program at Bryn Mawr College, I taught in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University.

In my research, I am especially interested in understanding how grassroots movements promote 'development from below'. To this end, my current research investigates how the grassroots mobilizations of the Brazilian Landless Movement (MST) have pressured the Brazilian government into redistributing 17 million acres of farmland on which one and a half million MST members farm.

I have also commenced preliminary research on the Abahlale baseMjondolo (AbM) or Shack Dwellers Movement in Cape Town, South Africa. In this research, I will analyse the AbM’s struggles for the right to the city by focusing on its mobilizations for housing and municipal services.

I teach classes that broadly intersect with my research and teaching interests.  I have recently taught the following courses: Social Movements and Globalization, Urban Sustainability and Global Environmental Change, Urban Transformations in the Global South, The Right to the City: Social Movement Struggles for Space, Place, and Citizenship, and Brazilian Cities: Urbanization and Development in Brasilia, Salvador and Rio de Janeiro.