Book Review: Uganda: The Dynamics of Neoliberal Transformation by Jörg Wiegratz, Giuliano Martiniello and Elisa Greco

Uganda has long been renowned as a ‘poster child’ for the donor-sponsored policy reform agendas that took off in the 1980s and 1990s, from privatisation and economic liberalisation to decentralisation and deregulation. Despite this, and despite a wealth of literature on specific aspects of this reform agenda, there was until recently no book-length text that brought together critical scholarship on the diverse manifestations and ramifications of the ‘neoliberal turn’ as it played out across Uganda’s economy and society. This book fills that gap, and in so doing makes an important contribution to the broader literature on the scope of neoliberal policies, their role in international aid, and the ways in which they can realign societies with long-term implications. As the editors of the volume themselves note, the earlier landmark collections on Uganda edited by Hansen and Twaddle (including 1988’s Uganda Now, 1991’s Changing Uganda and 1998’s Developing Uganda) have not been followed by similarly focused edited works, despite a plethora of articles and monographs on Uganda’s development in the two and half decades since. Moreover, these earlier collections in some respects described the remarkable changes and policy reforms that began to transform Uganda in the late 1980s and 1990s without the temporal distance to be able to critically reflect on them and their societal consequences. Remarkably, decades on Yoweri Museveni remains in power, and while there have been some important policy shifts (not to mention global political economic upheavals) since the early neoliberal period, there is a significant degree of continuity and deepening of neoliberal institutions. In this respect, this book is sorely needed, and its critical and interdisciplinary perspective is very welcome. In offering an analysis of the manifold ways in which the neoliberal orientation has permeated policy, economy and society in Uganda, this book goes beyond standard analyses of neoliberal reforms – and does so by drawing in an impressive range of scholars. It is divided into four sections: the state, donors and development aid; economic restructuring and social services; extractivism and enclosures; and race, cultures and commoditisation. While all four of these offer an excellent selection of academic analyses, it is in some ways the third and fourth sections that push most beyond the