Professor Abdulrazak Karriem

Institute for Social Development

Abdulrazak Karriem is a Professor at the Institute for Social Development at the University of the Western Cape. He obtained his PhD in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. His research interests include urban and rural development, the role of social movements in promoting development from below, and the politics of migration studies in the Global South. Prior to joining the Institute for Social Development at UWC, he taught in the Department of City and Regional Development at Cornell University and in the Growth and Structure of Cities Program at Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He also worked for the Department of Land Affairs (on land reform and rural development) and at the Department Constitutional Development (on provincial and local governance) during the Nelson Mandela administration.

Prof Karriem is a collaborator on the “Migration And Food Security In The Global South: Interactions, Impacts, And Remedies (Mifood Project),” as well as with an African Academy of Migration Research (AAMR) partnership grant. He has lectured and conducted research on Migration and Development at ISD. Moreover, he has supervised and examined a number of postgraduate theses on migration related themes such as the sustainable livelihoods of migrants working in the informal economy, migration as a climate change adaptation strategy, among other migration themes.

Relevant publications

Africa, C., Yu, D., Karriem., A., & Raymond, B. (2023). Crisis Leadership: Reflecting on the Complex Role of Academic (Middle) Leaders during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Perspectives in Education.41 (2): 89-103.
Ziga, M and Karriem, A. (2023). NCD prevention through an equitable food system in South Africa: Opportunities and challenges. ESR Review: Economic and Social Rights in South Africa, 23(4): 7-12.
Savelli, E., Rusca, M., Cloke, H., Flügel, T. J., Karriem, A., & Di Baldassarre, G. (2022). All dried up: The materiality of drought in Ladismith, South Africa. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 1-28.
Ahmed, R., Karriem, A. & Mohammed. S. (2022). We can speak but will there be any change? Voices from Blikkiesdorp. In C. Walker, S. Zlotowitz, & A. Zoli (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Innovative Community and Clinical Psychologies (pp. 631-651). London: Palgrave McMillan.
Ahmed, R., Sayed, Y. M., Nell, J., Somhlaba, N. Z. & Karriem, A. (2021). Poverty, protests and pandemics: what can we learn from community resilience? South African Journal of Psychology, 51(4), 478-480.
Dinbabo, M., Karriem, A.,Penderis, S. & Ziehl, S. (2016). Evaluation of migration data and modelling migration in the Western Cape. Final Report Submitted to the Department of Social Development, Western Cape Government.
Karriem, A. & Hoskins, M. (2016). From the RDP to the NDP: A critical appraisal of the developmental state, land reform and rural development in South Africa. Politikon: South African Journal of Political Studies, 43(3), 325-343.
Karriem, A. & Benjamin, L. (2016). How civil society organizations foster insurgent citizenship: Lessons from the Brazilian Landless Movement. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 27(1), 19-36.
Philander, F. & Karriem, A. (2016). Assessment of urban agriculture as a livelihood strategy for household food security. An appraisal of urban gardens in Langa, Cape Town. International Journal of Arts & Sciences, 9(1), 327-338.
Suffla, S., Seedat, M. & Karriem, A. (2010). Peace, its indices and implications for Swaraj. Social Change, 40(4), 439-457.
Karriem, A. (2009). The rise and transformation of the Brazilian Landless Movement into a counter-hegemonic political actor: A Gramscian Analysis. Geoforum, 40(3), 316-325.
Karriem, A. (2009). The Brazilian Landless Movement: Mobilization for transformative politics. In Y. Atasoy (Ed.), Hegemonic Transitions, the State and Crisis in Neoliberal Capitalism (pp. 262-280). New York: Routledge.