Draft:Richard James Sandbrook

• Comment: It is very difficult to review this draft due to the way that the sources are not inline. This is a requirement for living people under WP:BLP and WP:REFB should help you to fix this. Perhaps more important is WP:NPROF since this identifies if the subject has "presumed notability". If they do, and you can identify the criteria, then it makes it easier to get this draft over the line. If not we need independent sources talking about the subject, ideally three such examples. ChrysGalley (talk) 17:52, 29 September 2026 (UTC)

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Richard (James) Sandbrook FRSC (born 1943) is a Canadian political economist and peace advocate who is emeritus professor of political science at the University of Toronto and vice-president (and past president) of Science for Peace, Canada.^[i] He worked mainly on the political economy of international development, with specific reference to sub-Saharan Africa and, more recently, on peace resolution and ecological sustainability.^[ii]

Early Life and Education

Born in the United Kingdom, he moved to British Columbia, Canada at the age of four.^[iii] He was educated in Canada (BA Carlton, MA Toronto) and the UK (DPhil Sussex). His doctoral thesis was on the labour movement in Kenya.

Career

Following a one-year stint as assistant lecturer in politics at the University of Nairobi,^[iv] Sandbrook taught politics at the University of Toronto from 1970 until retiring as a full professor in 2015.^[v] He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1985. He continued to conduct research in Africa, mainly Kenya, Ghana and Mauritius, until the 2000s and held visiting appointments at Sussex and Copenhagen. His professional service includes being President of the Canadian Association of African Studies (1995-96) and Executive Member of the Canadian Council of Area Studies Learned Societies (1992-96). He co-founded the International Development Studies Program at University of Toronto, Scarborough. He has published 14 books and about 50 scholarly articles.https://discover.research.utoronto.ca/26523-richard-sandbrook.

After retirement, Sandbrook took up a second career as a volunteer researcher and teacher at Science for Peace, a charity dedicated to popular research and public education. He has served as president and vice-president.^[vi] His most abiding interests lie in the theory and practice of nonviolent resistance and in the politics of achieving a just transition to a livable planet. He has written over 40 short, popular articles collected in his Progressive Futures Blog.^[vii] His latest book (2026) is entitled The Citizen’s Guide to Nonviolent Defence: How Canadians Can Deter Invasion, Defeat Tyranny and Build Democracy.

Intellectual and Policy-Related Contributions

Sandbrook made his early contributions in the broad area of African labour studies, focusing on incipient class formation and action of urban workers, especially in combination with the larger “labouring poor.”. This research branched out into a broader study of the political attitudes and action of urban poor in selected African cities. He identified the prominence of populist mentalities, rather than strictly class perspectives.

In the mid-1980s, Sandbrook studied the political economy of Africa’s economic stagnation and later recovery, identifying the salience of neo-patrimonial politics in understanding economic decline. He developed critiques of neoliberal development policy, also investigating the developmental impact of returns to democratic elections in Africa.

In the early 2000s, Sandbrook turned to the study of the politics and prospects of counter-hegemonic globalization; and neo-Polanyian political economy, contending that an alternative, more positive, form of globalization was possible, which he termed a “social-democratic globalization.”  This investigation led to a broader study of “the politics of the possible” in the global south, focusing on the variety and prospects of left alternatives.

His most recent book addresses the predicament of his home country of Canada confronting threats of annexation made by the US President. The book argues for the development of organized and trained nonviolent civilian defenders who would operate in coordination with the Canadian Armed Forces. Such a joint deployment, he argues, offers an efficient, effective and far less damaging alternative to a wholly military defence.

Key Works

1.The Citizen’s Guide to Nonviolent Defence: How Canadians Can Deter Invasion, Defeat Tyranny and Build Democracy. Donald & McIntyre, 2026.

2.Reinventing the Left in the Global South: The Politics of the Possible. Cambridge University Press, 2014.

3.Social Democracy in the Global Periphery: Origins, Challenges, Prospects (co-author) Cambridge University Press, 2007. Translated in Turkish.

4.Civilizing Globalization: A Survival Guide (co-editor and co-author) State University of New York Press, 2003. Revised and expanded ed. in 2014.

5.Closing the Circle: Democratization and Development in Africa. Zed Books, 2001 and Between the Lines, 2000.

6.The Politics of Africa's Economic Recovery. Cambridge University Press, 1993.

7.The Politics of Africa's Economic Stagnation. Cambridge University Press, 1985.  Translated in Japanese.

8.The Politics of Basic Needs:  Urban Aspects of Assaulting Poverty in Africa.  University of Toronto Press and Heinemann Educational Books, 1982. (Selected by Choice as 'Outstanding Academic Book, 1982‑83')

9.The Labouring Poor and Urban Class Formation:  The Case of Greater Accra (co-author)  Centre for Developing Area Studies, McGill University, Monograph Series No. 12, 1977

10.The Development of an African Working Class: Studies in Class Formation and Action (co‑editor and co‑author) London: Longman Group Ltd., and Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1975. Reissued in 2024 as a Routledge Revival.

11. Proletarians and African Capitalism: The Kenyan Case. Cambridge University Press, 1975. Reissued as a paperback by CUP in 2008.

References

[i] https://canadianwhoswho.ca/search_results.php?keywords=K+Richard+Sandbrook&onlyByName=1

[ii] https://sandbroo.faculty.politics.utoronto.ca/introduction/

[iii] https://canadianwhoswho.ca/search_results.php?keywords=K+Richard+Sandbrook&onlyByName=1

[iv] https://canadianwhoswho.ca/search_results.php?keywords=K+Richard+Sandbrook&onlyByName=1

[v] https://discover.research.utoronto.ca/26523-richard-sandbrook

[vi] https://www.scienceforpeace.org/about-us                                                                                              

[vii]https://sandbroo.faculty.politics.utoronto.ca/introduction/