Contentious Politics of Scale: The Global Food Price Crisis and Local Protest in Burkina Faso

Abstract

Global crises such as the financial crisis, the energy crisis and the food crisis have, without doubt, social, political and ecological repercussions on the local scale. This article explores the mechanisms that mediate global crises into local conflicts. Based on empirical insights, it aims to contribute to the study of how global structures and processes relate to local conflicts and protest. The study analyses conflicts over the high cost of living in Burkina Faso, where intense protests related to the global food crises have occurred. Scale and framing are used as the central analytical concepts. The location of a problem (such as high consumer food prices) on a particular scale (local, national or global) is a politically contested issue. Referring to the conceptual differentiation between ‘scales of regulation’ and ‘scales of meaning’, the article argues that scalar ascriptions and discourses as such are already integral parts of political conflicts and protest.