Dr Albert Farre

     DR ALBERT FARRÉ

     BA Anthropology (University of Barcelona)

     MA and Ph.D. History (University of Barcelona)

Albert was a postdoctoral fellow in the Human Economy Programme in 2012. He can be contacted at [email protected].

Albert completed a Ph.D. in History at the University of Barcelona, in 2005. His doctoral thesis is on the relationship of the state’s local administration and rural societies in Mozambique, during the colonial period and after independence.  Since 2006 up to 2011 he has been postdoctoral fellow at the Centro de Estudos Africanos (CEA-IUL) of the  Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa (ISCTE), in Portugal. During this period he has done ethnographical fieldwork in Massinga district (Mozambique) and in the several districts composing the Teso region in Uganda. In both places he has been interested in the diversity of local leaders existing in rural areas, and the relationship between those appointed by the government and those whose source of authority is independent from state agents.  He has focused on management of land, labour and commodities; the migration processes and its relevance to changing identities or, in the case of labour migration, the social consequences of the migrant’s coming back home; and changes and social innovations experienced by rural societies especially hit by the war going on in Mozambique and Uganda during the eighties.

Albert is currently conducting ethnographic research on the interplay between migration and agriculture around Massinga town. At the same time  he is engaged in history research on the kind of public sphere existing in Massinga, and how the public spheres of mainly rural and postcolonial  societies, as is the case of Mozambique, has different characteristics than the public sphere originally described by Habermas drawing on European history.

Key publications include:

Farré A., 2010, “Formas de investimento das poupanças no local de origen por parte dos emigrantes do sul de Mozambique. O caso do distrito de Massinga (Inhambane)”, en: Luis de Brito; Carlos Castel-Branco; Sérgio Chichava e António Francisco (coords.), Protecção social. Abordagens, desafíos e experências para Moçambique, Maputo, IESE, pp. 213-233.

 Farré, A. 2010 “La guerra de guerrillas en la Europa napoleónica y en el África colonial y postcolonial: Una estrategia militar y un síntoma de sujetos colectivos en gestación”, The Scientific Journal of Humanistic Studies, 2/2, Bucarest, pp. 68-77.

Farré, Albert, Vitor Lourenço, Jordi Tomàs, 2009, “Introducción: Diversidad de poderes en África y resolución de conflictos” in: Albert Farré y Jordi Tomàs (coord.), Procesos de reconciliación posbélica en el África Subsahariana, Revista CIDOB d’Afers Internacionals nº 87: 7-16.

Farré, A., 2009, “Ulises en Africa o la sobreposición de debates: representación política, descentralización administrativa, pluralismo jurídico y desarrollo rural en África subsahariana”, Studia Africana nº 20, CEA-ARDA, pp. 46-55.

Farré, Albert, 2008, “Vínculos de sangue e estruturas de papel: ritos e território na história de Quême (Inhambane)”, Análise Social, vol. XLIII: 393-418.

Farré, Albert, 2008, “Estado y autoridad tradicional: La importancia y los límites del pluralismo”, Soronda. Revista de Estudos Guineenses. Número Especial:  Experiências Locais de Gestão de Conflitos, , INEP-Bissau y Bayreuth University, 91-112.