On April 26, 2024, the Fudan Institute for Global Public Policy (IGPP) organized the 55th lecture of the Fudan-LSE Lecture Series. Professor Catherine Boone from the London School of Economics (LSE) delivered a lecture on Uneven Development and Politics within African Countries: Regional Tensions around New Growth Models. The lecture was chaired by Professor Yijia Jing, Dean of the IGPP, with Professor Dwayne Woods from Purdue University and Professor Yu Zheng from the Fudan School of International and Public Affairs serving as discussants.

The lecture was based on Professor Boone's book Political Topographies of the African State, tracing the roots of the strong regionalism within African countries. She developed a theoretical framework focusing on the internal politics of African states to analyze the relationship between regional inequality and regionalism. The research finds that severe regional economic inequality has led to typical regional policy divergences, which mainly revolve around issues of redistribution policies, sectoral policies, national market integration, and constitutional design.

During the Q&A and comments session, Professor Woods and professor Zheng provided detailed comments. Audiences engaged in lively academic discussions on topics such as the uneven development and regionalist politics in African countries, and the relationship between economic development and spatial politics.