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Topic · African studies and sociopolitical issues

Most cited papers in African studies and sociopolitical issues

African studies and sociopolitical issues

What are the most cited papers in African studies and sociopolitical issues?

The most cited paper in African studies and sociopolitical issues is "The Anti-Politics Machine: ‘Development’, depoliticization and bureaucratic power in Lesotho" (Ian Blore, 1995), with 1,786 citations. Next come "The Zimbabwe Bush Pump" (1,100) and "Resource curse? governmentality, oil and power in the Niger Delta, Nigeria" (819).

Showing 50 of 100 papers. Every paper with more than 155 citations is listed.

Most cited papers, sortable by citations and release date
#Paper
1 The Anti-Politics Machine: ‘Development’, depoliticization and bureaucratic power in Lesotho Ian Blore · African Affairs 1995 1,786
2 The Zimbabwe Bush Pump Marianne de Laet, Annemarie Mol · Social Studies of Science Apr 2000 1,100
3 Resource curse? governmentality, oil and power in the Niger Delta, Nigeria Michael John Watts · Geopolitics Open access Mar 2004 819
4 The Criminalization of the State in Africa Gail M. Gerhart, Jean-François Bayart, Stephen Ellis et al. · Foreign Affairs 1999 742
5 Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa Nicolas van de Walle, Daniel Posner · Foreign Affairs 2005 653
6 The Sanitation Syndrome: Bubonic Plague and Urban Native Policy in the Cape Colony, 1900–1909 Maynard W. Swanson · The Journal of African History Jul 1977 644
7 Presidentialism and clientelism in Africa's emerging party systems Nicolas van de Walle · The Journal of Modern African Studies 20 May 2003 640
8 Power Sharing and Leadership Dynamics in Authoritarian Regimes Milan W. Svolik · American Journal of Political Science 27 Mar 2009 589
9 Political Clientelism and Ethnicity in Tropical Africa: Competing Solidarities in Nation-Building René Lemarchand · American Political Science Review Mar 1972 532
10 Beyond the State: Civil Society and Associational Life in Africa Michaël Bratton · World Politics Apr 1989 521
11 The Anthropology of Money Bill Maurer · Annual Review of Anthropology Review 6 Jul 2006 515
12 Development through bricolage rethinking institutions for natural resource management Frances Cleaver 2012 502
13 Declarations of dependence: labour, personhood, and welfare in southern A frica JAMES G. FERGUSON · Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute May 2013 492
14 The politics of government-NGO relations in Africa Michaël Bratton · World Development Open access Apr 1989 484
15 Community Driven Development, Collective Action and Elite Capture in Indonesia Aniruddha Dasgupta, Victoria A. Beard · Development and Change Open access Mar 2007 436
16 Traditional use of medicinal plants in south-central Zimbabwe: review and perspectives Alfred Maroyi · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine Open access 4 May 2013 427
17 Speaking with Vampires: Rumor and History in Colonial Africa Justin Willis, Luise White · Africa 2003 422
18 Land grabbing in Southern Africa: the many faces of the investor rush Ruth Hall · Review of African Political Economy Open access Jun 2011 422
19 Beyond Patronage: Violent Struggle, Ruling Party Cohesion, and Authoritarian Durability Steven Levitsky, Lucan A. Way · Perspectives on Politics Dec 2012 419
20 Land registration in Africa: The impact on agricultural production David A. Atwood · World Development May 1990 416
21 Africa since 1940: The Past of the Present Philip S. Zachernuk, Frederick Cooper · The International Journal of African Historical Studies 2004 414
22 Subaltern Struggles and the Politics of Place: Remapping Resistance in Zimbabwe's Eastern Highlands Donald S. Moore · Cultural Anthropology Open access Aug 1998 413
23 The Lie of the Land: Challenging received wisdom on the African environment Joan M. Kenworthy · African Affairs Oct 1997 370
24 Lifebuoy Men, Lux Women: Commodification, Consumption, and Cleanliness in Modern Zimbabwe Mathew Engelke · American Anthropologist Sep 1997 358
25 Marxism, feminism and South African studies Belinda Bozzoli · Journal of Southern African Studies Apr 1983 340
26 Moral Ecological Rationality, Institutions and the Management of Common Property Resources Frances Cleaver · Development and Change Open access Mar 2000 323
27 Soil erosion, conservationism and ideas about development: a Southern African exploration, 1900–1960 William Beinart · Journal of Southern African Studies Oct 1984 315
28 “Praise the Lord”: Popular cinema and pentecostalite style in Ghana's new public sphere Birgit Meyer · American Ethnologist Open access Feb 2004 310
29 ‘Changing Before Our Very Eyes’: Agrarian Questions and the Politics of Land in Capitalism Today Henry T. Bernstein · Journal of Agrarian Change 19 Dec 2003 307
30 When kleptocracy becomes insolvent: Brute causes of the civil war in South Sudan Alex de Waal · African Affairs Open access Jul 2014 292
31 Why agricultural production in sub-Saharan Africa remains low compared to the rest of the world – a historical perspective Vibeke Bjornlund, Henning Bjørnlund, André van Rooyen · International Journal of Water Resources Development Open access 5 May 2020 286
32 Contesting Terrain in Zimbabwe's Eastern Highlands: Political Ecology, Ethnography, and Peasant Resource Struggles Donald S. Moore · Economic Geography Oct 1993 280
33 The terrible toll of post-colonial ‘rebel movements’ in Africa: towards an explanation of the violence against the peasantry Thandika Mkandawire · The Journal of Modern African Studies Jun 2002 276
34 It's our turn to eat: The story of a Kenyan whistleblower Christian John Makgala · Journal of Contemporary African Studies Jul 2010 275
35 Coping with drought in Zimbabwe: Survey evidence on responses of rural households to risk Bill H. Kinsey, Kees Burger, Jan Willem Gunning · World Development 1998 274
36 The Crucible of Cultural Politics: Reworking "Development" in Zimbabwe's Eastern Highlands Donald S. Moore · American Ethnologist Aug 1999 270
37 'Delivered From the Spirit of Poverty?': Pentecostalism, Prosperity and Modernity in Zimbabwe1 David Maxwell · Journal of Religion in Africa 1998 268
38 ‘Land grab’ as development strategy? The political economy of agricultural investment in Ethiopia Tom Lavers · The Journal of Peasant Studies Open access 2012 263
39 Democratization in Africa 1990–2010: an assessment Gabrielle Lynch, Gordon Crawford · Democratization 28 Mar 2011 261
40 The Psychology of State Repression: Fear and Dissent Decisions in Zimbabwe Lauren Young · American Political Science Review 26 Nov 2018 257
41 Religious Encounter and the Making of the Yoruba Robin Law, J. D. Y. Peel · Africa 2003 255
42 The Historical Development of the Written Discourses onUbuntu Christian Gade · South African Journal of Philosophy 2011 250
43 Urban planning as a tool of power and social control in colonial Africa Ambe J. Njoh · Planning Perspectives 20 Jun 2009 247
44 Guerrillas and civilian participation: the National Resistance Army in Uganda, 1981–86 Nelson Kasfir · The Journal of Modern African Studies Jun 2005 242
45 ‘Nothing is Straight in Zimbabwe’: The Rise of theKukiya-kiyaEconomy 2000–2008 Jeremy Jones · Journal of Southern African Studies Jun 2010 240
46 Explaining the apartheid city: 20 years of South African urban historiography Paul Maylam · Journal of Southern African Studies Mar 1995 235
47 ‘Restoring Order’? Operation Murambatsvina and the Urban Crisis in Zimbabwe Deborah Potts · Journal of Southern African Studies Jun 2006 229
48 8. Small‐scale entrepreneurs in Ghana and development planning Keith Hart · The Journal of Development Studies Jul 1970 228
49 Lifebuoy Men, Lux Women: Commodification, Consumption, and Cleanliness in Modern Zimbabwe Charles H. Ambler, Timothy Burke · The American Historical Review Apr 1998 226
50 An African Success Story: Botswana Daron Acemoğlu, Simon Johnson, James A. Robinson · SSRN Electronic Journal PreprintOpen access 2001 224

Citations are OpenAlex's own counts, from its 2026-09-23 snapshot, so the ranking can differ from Google Scholar or Web of Science. A paper is listed for a field when OpenAlex files it under one of the field's topics; retracted papers and papers whose citation count cannot be traced to citing works are left out, and a preprint and the article it became are shown once. Release dates are OpenAlex's: where a source gave only a month or a year, that is what is shown. How the lists are chosen.