Dr Florian Schaefer is Lecturer of International Development at King's and a Visiting Fellow at the Open University. Before joining King's in December 2022, Florian held postdoctoral positions at SOAS, the London School of Economics, and the Open University. He completed a PhD in Development Studies at SOAS, University of London, in 2017.

From 2009 to 2011 Florian was an ODI Fellow in Addis Ababa. He has acted as a consultant for international organisations including the ILO, the FAO, and the World Bank.

Research

• Political economy of development
• Work in the global economy
• Transnational investment projects

Florian research focuses on two mayor themes:

1. The availability and quality of jobs in low- and middle-income countries
2. The development of large-scale transnational investment projects.

Most of his work uses mixed methods, in particular survey data and in-depth qualitative interviews. He is currently involved in research projects analysing apparel export production in East Africa and Chinese infrastructure investments in Europe.

Teaching

Undergraduate

Transition, Emergence and Development in Africa (5YYD0005)

Postgraduate

Global Labour and Development (7YYDN036)

PhD supervision

Florian is happy to supervise students in the following areas:

• Work in global production
• Global value chains and production networks
• African economic development State-led development
• The political economy of large-scale infrastructure projects
• Chinese internationalisation

Please contact Florian by email to discuss potential PhD supervision.

Further details

See Florian's research profile