Main menu
Staff & students
In this section

Dr Jason Hickel

Staff details

Position Senior Lecturer
Department Anthropology
Email j.hickel (@gold.ac.uk)
Dr Jason Hickel

Jason's present research focuses on global inequality, political economy, post-development and ecological economics. His most recent book, The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions (Penguin Random House UK, 2017) explores the historical and political drivers of inequality between the global North and South. Jason's ethnographic research focuses on migrant labour, politics and finance in South Africa.

Academic qualifications

  • PhD in Anthropology, University of Virginia 2011

Teaching and Supervision

Research interests

Dr Jason Hickel’s present research focuses on global inequality, political economy, post-development and ecological economics. His most recent book, The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions (Penguin Random House UK, 2017) explores the historical and political drivers of inequality between the global North and South. The book argues that the global economy has been organized, from the advent of colonialism to the contemporary trade and finance system, in a way that benefits a small number of rich nations at the expense of most of the rest of the world.

Jason's ethnographic research focuses on migrant labour and politics in South Africa. His first book, Democracy as Death: The Moral Order of Anti-Liberal Politics in South Africa (University of California Press, 2015) explores why many migrant workers from rural Zululand tend to regard certain elements of liberal democracy as morally repulsive and socially destructive. It argues that this trend can only be understood with reference to popular conceptions of collective well-being and healing that hinge on the hierarchical order of domestic space in rural areas.

In addition to his academic work, Jason writes regularly for The Guardian, Foreign Policy and Al Jazeera, and contributes to a number of other outlets. He sits on the executive board of Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP), the Labour Party task force on international development, and the Lancet Commission on Reparations and Redistributive Justice.

For more about Jason’s work, and for free access to his publications, see www.jasonhickel.org.

Publications

Book

Hickel, Jason . 2017. The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions. London: Penguin Random House UK. ISBN 9781785151125

Hickel, Jason . 2015. Democracy as Death: The Moral Order of Anti-Liberal Politics in South Africa. Oakland, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520284234

Edited Book

Hickel, Jason and Haynes, Naomi, eds. 2018. Hierarchy and Value: Comparative Perspectives on Moral Order. New York: Berghahn Press. ISBN 9781785339967

Hickel, Jason and Healy, Meghan, eds. 2014. Ekhaya: The Politics of Home in KwaZulu-Natal. Pietermaritzburg, South Africa: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press. ISBN 9781869142544

Book Section

Hickel, Jason and Haynes, Naomi. 2018. Hierarchy and Value (with a response to David Graeber). In: Jason Hickel and Naomi Haynes, eds. Hierarchy and Value: Comparative Perspectives on Moral Order. New York: Berghahn Press, pp. 1-21. ISBN 9781785339967

Hickel, Jason and Khan, Arsalan. 2018. Preface: Toward a Political Anthropology of Hierarchy. In: Jason Hickel and Naomi Haynes, eds. Hierarchy and Value: Comparative Perspectives on Moral Order. New York: Berghahn Press. ISBN 9781785339967

Hickel, Jason . 2017. Afterword (On the Imperative of Deschooling Society). In: , ed. The Other Hundred Educators. OneWorld, pp. 211-213. ISBN 9781786070784

Kirk, Martin; Hickel, Jason and Brewer, Joe. 2017. All Change or No Change? Culture, Power, and Activism in an Unquiet World. In: Nick Buxton and Deborah Eade, eds. State of Power 2017. Transnational Institute.

Hickel, Jason . 2017. International Development. In: , ed. 2017 Election Manifesto Poverty Audit. London: Academics Stand Against Poverty.

Hickel, Jason . 2017. Addressing the Structural Drivers of World Suffering. In: Ronald Anderson, ed. Alleviating World Suffering: The Challenge of Negative Quality of Life. Cham: Springer, pp. 199-215. ISBN 978-3-319-51391-1

Hickel, Jason . 2016. Neoliberalism and the End of Democracy. In: Simon Springer; Kean Birch and Julie MacLeavy, eds. The Handbook of Neoliberalism. Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 9781138844001

Hickel, Jason . 2016. The Contradictions of Economic Growth in an Era of Ecological Limits. In: , ed. Engineering a Better World. London: Royal Academy of Engineering.

Hickel, Jason and Ladha, Alnoor. 2016. The Age of Inequality: Causes, Discontents, and a Radical Way Forward. In: Chris Oestereich, ed. What Do We Do about Inequality? The Journal Review Foundation. ISBN 978-1530305421

Hickel, Jason . 2015. Beyond Aid. In: , ed. 2015 Political Manifesto Poverty Audit: The Flourishing Life Narrative. London: Academics Stand Against Poverty, pp. 50-52.

Hickel, Jason . 2014. Aid in Reverse: How Poor Countries Develop Rich Countries. In: Andy Sumner and Tom Kirk, eds. The Donors’ Dilemma: Emergence, Convergence, and the Future of Aid. London: Global Policy. ISBN 9781310031625

Hickel, Jason . 2014. Engineering the Township Home: Domestic Transformations and Urban Revolutionary Consciousness. In: Meghan Healy and Jason Hickel, eds. Ekhaya: The Politics of Home in KwaZulu-Natal. Pietermaritzburg: KwaZulu-Natal Press. ISBN 9781869142544

Hickel, Jason and Healy, Meghan. 2014. On the Politics of Home. In: Meghan Healy and Jason Hickel, eds. Ekhaya: The Politics of Home in KwaZulu-Natal. Pietermaritzburg: KwaZulu-Natal Press. ISBN 9781869142544

Hickel, Jason . 2012. Constituting the Commons: Oil and Development in Post-Independence South Sudan. In: Karl Widerquist and Michael Howard, eds. Exporting the Alaska Model: Adapting the Permanent Fund Dividend for Reform Around the World. New York: Palgrave. ISBN 9781137006592

Article

Hickel, Jason and Kallis, Giorgos. 2020. Is Green Growth Possible? New Political Economy, 25(4), pp. 469-486. ISSN 1356-3467

Hickel, Jason . 2019. The Contradiction of the Sustainable Development Goals: Economic Growth vs Ecology on a Finite Planet. Sustainable Development, 27(5), pp. 873-884. ISSN 0968-0802

Hickel, Jason . 2019. Degrowth: A Theory of Radical Abundance. Real-World Economics Review, 87, pp. 54-68. ISSN 1755-9472

Hickel, Jason . 2018. Is it Possible to Achieve a Good Life for All within Planetary Boundaries? Third World Quarterly, 40(1), pp. 18-35. ISSN 0143-6597

Hickel, Jason . 2017. Is Global Inequality Getting Better or Worse?: A Critique of the World Bank’s Convergence Narrative. Third World Quarterly, 38(10), pp. 2208-2222. ISSN 0143-6597

Hickel, Jason . 2017. The Development Delusion: Foreign Aid and Inequality. American Affairs, 1(3), pp. 160-173. ISSN 2475-8809

Hickel, Jason and Haynes, Naomi. 2016. Hierarchy, Value, and the Value of Hierarchy. Social Analysis, 60(4), pp. 1-20. ISSN 0155-977X

Hickel, Jason . 2016. The True Extent of Global Poverty and Hunger: Questioning the Good-News Narrative of the Millennium Development Goals. Third World Quarterly, 37(5), pp. 749-767. ISSN 0143-6597

Hickel, Jason . 2014. ’The Girl Effect’: Liberalism, Empowerment, and the Contradictions of Development. Third World Quarterly, 35(8), pp. 1355-1373. ISSN 0143-6597

Hickel, Jason . 2014. "Xenophobia" in South Africa: Order, Chaos, and the Moral Economy of Witchcraft. Cultural Anthropology, 29(1), pp. 103-127. ISSN 0886-7356

Hickel, Jason . 2013. The ‘Real Experience’ Industry: Student Development Projects and the Depoliticization of Poverty. Learning and Teaching: The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences, 6(2), pp. 11-32. ISSN 1755-2273

Hickel, Jason . 2012. Subaltern Consciousness in South Africa’s Labor Movement: ‘Workerism’ in the KwaZulu-Natal Sugar Industry. South African Historical Journal, 64(3), pp. 664-684. ISSN 0258-2473

Hickel, Jason . 2012. Social Engineering and Revolutionary Consciousness: Domestic Transformations in Colonial South Africa. History and Anthropology, 23(3), pp. 301-322. ISSN 0275-7206

Hickel, Jason . 2012. Neoliberal Plague: The Political Economy of HIV Transmission in Swaziland. Journal of Southern African Studies, 38(3), pp. 513-529. ISSN 0305-7070

Hickel, Jason and Khan, Arsalan. 2012. The Culture of Capitalism and the Crisis of Critique. Anthropological Quarterly, 85(1), pp. 203-227. ISSN 0003-5491

Hickel, Jason . 2012. Liberalism and the Politics of Occupy Wall Street. Anthropology of This Century, 4, ISSN 2047-6345

Hickel, Jason . 2009. Not So Sweet History of Sugar Unions in South Africa. South African Labour Bulletin, 33(3), ISSN 0377-5429

Arnold, Robert; Gionet, Elisha; Hickel, Jason ; Owen, Michael and Armitage, M Diane. 2004. Duration and Effect of Single-Dose Atropine. Binocular Vision and Strabismus Quarterly, 19(2), pp. 81-86. ISSN 1088-6281

Further profile content

Dr Jason Hickel's Links

Featured publications

2017: The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions
Penguin Random House UK

2015: Democracy as Death: The Moral Order of Anti-Liberal Politics in South Africa
University of California Press

Grants and awards

Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship

Fulbright-Hays Fellowship

National Science Foundation Fellowship

Wenner-Gren Foundation Fellowship

Charlotte W. Newcombe Fellowship, Woodrow Wilson Foundation