Members

Education

PhD in International Relations, Ritsumeikan University
MA in International Relations, Ritsumeikan University

Research Field

Agricultural development and food security in sub-Saharan Africa

Research Keywords

Capacity-driven approach, policy convergence, food security, agricultural development, orbit analysis, multilevel network analysis.

Research Activities and Interests

My primary research interest is about agricultural development and food security in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It seeks to establish theoretically and empirically what is conceptualized as "New" in Political Economy. This objective is inspired by a broad question: how the international policies and politics are influencing domestic policies? And what kind of intellectual contribution could be brought to enlighten this issue with respect to agricultural development and food security in the region of SSA. In a specific way, I ask: What kind of policy measures would better address the country specific context of agricultural development and food security taking into consideration the different stage of development in the SSA region? Should SSA countries follow the Race-to-the Bottom (RTB) patterns of an internationally integrated agricultural policy, namely the value chain approach? Should African countries follow policies that stress on smallholders and food sovereignty to reduce poverty and address security issues?

My second research interest is about the Dialectics as a methodology of social science. In the words of Robert Albritton: Dialectics radically opens economic thinking to consider relations between the economic and non-economic, between the quantitative and qualitative, between the empirical and normative, between more abstract levels of theory and history, and between theories of political economy and theories of subjectivity.

Selected Publications

[1] Rajaonarison, H.M., Nature in Madagascar, Madagasukaru no shizen, in Antei o mosaku suru Afurika, T. Kida and Y. Takeuchi, Editors. forthcoming, MinervaShobo: Kyoto.

[2] Rajaonarison, H.M., In the search of the driving forces of sub-Saharan Africa's economy : an approach from orbit analysis. Ritsumeikan International Affairs, 2016. 14: p. 23-53.

[3] Rajaonarison, H.M., The trilemma of agricultural development and food security in sub-Saharan Africa. Ritsumeikan International Affairs, 2015. 13(1): p. 31-54.

[4] Rajaonarison, H.M., Food and human security in sub-Saharan Africa. Procedia Environmental Sciences, 2014. 20(0): p. 377-385.