Data and Drought: A Community Fights Back
As artificial intelligence drives an unprecedented expansion of data-center infrastructure, questions of climate sustainability, democratic accountability, and technological governance are...
Waste Sovereignty and Plastic Colonialism: Environmental Power and Populism in the Global Political Economy of Waste
DOWNLOAD ARTICLE Please cite as:Solaja, Oludele Mayowa. (2026). “Waste Sovereignty and Plastic Colonialism: Environmental Power and Populism in the Global...
Decolonizing Populism Theory: Ecological Crisis, Informal Governance, and Democratic Claims in the Global South
This commentary by Dr. Oludele Solaja advances a compelling decolonial critique of populism by relocating its analytical center from ideology...
From Waste to Political Weapon: Informal Recycling and Survivalist Populism in Urban Nigeria
Urban waste governance in Nigeria reveals a critical yet overlooked nexus between environmental management, informality, and political legitimacy. This policy...
Security at What Cost? Punitive Populism and Democratic Trade-offs in Ecuador
In this commentary, Emilio Hernández examines Ecuador’s recent security crisis through the lens of punitive populism, offering a nuanced account...
Survival Populism: How Environmental Crisis Fuels Democratic Distrust in the Global South
In this commentary, Dr. Oludele Solaja introduces the notion of “survival populism” to capture how environmental crisis and material insecurity...
When Fuel Prices Turn Political: Trust, Climate Reform, and Everyday Populism in Nigeria
This commentary examines how fuel pricing in Nigeria has become a central site of democratic contestation, linking economic reform to...
When Floods Become Political: Disaster Relief, Democratic Trust, and Everyday Environmental Populism in Nigeria
In this insightful commentary, Dr. Oludele Solaja reconceptualizes recurrent flooding in Nigeria as a site of political contestation rather than...
Algorithmic Environmental Populism and the Digital Politics of Waste in Africa
Dr. Oludele Solaja’s analysis introduces the concept of “Algorithmic Environmental Populism” to illuminate how digital platforms are reshaping the politics...
Algorithmic Populism and the Politics of Waste: How AI Reproduces Plastic Colonialism in the Global South
In this incisive analysis, Dr. Oludele Solaja interrogates how AI-driven waste governance reproduces global inequalities under the guise of efficiency....
Climate Populism in the Global South: Environmental Crisis and the Politics of Economic Discontent
Environmental crises are increasingly reshaping political conflict across the Global South. In this ECPS commentary, Dr. Oludele Solaja examines the...
Plastic Colonialism and the Politics of Waste: Toward a Theory of Waste Sovereignty in the Global South
Plastic waste has become one of the defining environmental crises of the twenty-first century—but its politics extend far beyond questions...