Faculty
Thomas J. Bassett
- Professor of Geography and Affiliate,
- Center for African Studies
- Research Interests: Africa, Third World development,
- African agrarian systems, political ecology,
- agricultural development & socio-cultural change,
- history of cartography.
- Office: 126 Davenport Hall
- Phone: 244-3200
- E-mail: bassett@uiuc.edu
Tom Bassett teaches courses on the geography of developing countries, Africa, and political ecology. Tom's field research focuses on development and the environment in Côte d'Ivoire, W. Africa, where he has conducted field research since 1981. He has written numerous articles on the evolution of farming and livestock raising systems, environmental change in savanna regions, and on land rights systems in Africa.
Tom is the author or co-author of six books: Land in African Agrarian Systems (1993), Maps of Africa to 1900 (2000), The Peasant Cotton Revolution in West Africa (2001), Le coton des paysans (2002), African Savannas (2003), and Political Ecology (2003).
His current research project centers on land privatization in Côte d'Ivoire, with an emphasis on access to land by pastoralists, women, and poor households and its effects on land use and land cover change.
Tom was Interim Director of the Center for African Studies at the University of Illinois in 1992-93 and 1994-95. He also served as a member of the Scientific Commission for the Social Sciences and Humanities of the French Institute for Development Research (IRD), formerly ORSTOM. IRD is the French government's overseas research agency that concentrates on environment and development problems in the global South.
Courses
- Geography 101: Geography of Developing Countries
- Geog. 220: Geographic Patterns of Illinois
- Geog. 520: Political Ecology
Recent Publications
Journal Articles (*peer reviewed)
T. Bassett and M. Turner (2007) Sudden Shift or Migratory Drift? FulBe herd movements in the Sudano-Guinean Savannas of West Africa. Human Ecology 35 (1): 33-49.
J. Guyer, E. Lambin, L. Cligget, P. Walker, K. Amanor, T. Bassett, E. Colson, R. Hay, O. Linares, M. Turner, and J. Unru (2007) Interdisciplinary Collaboration between Anthropology, Human Geography and Remote Sensing. Human Ecology 35(1) 3-17.
T. Bassett, C. Blanc-Pamard, and J. Boutrais. 2007. Constructing locality: the terroir approach in West Africa. Africa 77 (1): 104-129.
M-C Cormier Salem and T. Bassett (2007) Introduction: Nature as Local Heritage
in Africa: Longstanding Concerns, New Challenges. Africa 7 (1) 1-17.
2005 T. Bassett "Card-carrying hunters, rural poverty, and wildlife decline in northern Côte d'Ivoire"The Geographical Journal 171 (1): 71-82.
*2004 T. Bassett, "Containing the Donzow: The Politics of Scale in Côte d'Ivoire" Africa Today 50 (4): 30-49.
*2003 T. Bassett, "Nord Musulman and Sud Chrétien': Les moules médiatiques de la crise ivoirienne," ['The Muslim North and the Christian South': Geographical Templates in Newspaper Reports of the Côte'd'Ivoire's Political Crisis] Afrique Contemporaine No. 206 (Summer 2003), pp. 13-28.
*2003 T. Bassett, "Dangerous Pursuits: Hunter Associations (donzo ton) and National Politics in Côte d'Ivoire" Africa, 73:1, pp. 1-30.
*2003 T. Bassett, "Women's Cotton and the Spaces of Gender Politics in Northern Côte d'Ivoire" Gender, Place, and Culture 9 (4): 351-70.
2003 T. Bassett, "Bushmeat" in Encyclopedia of World Environmental History, in press.
*2002 R. Daniels and T. Bassett "The Spaces of Conservation and Development around Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya" The Professional Geographer 54 (4): 481-90.
*2000 T. Bassett & Z. Koli Bi "Environmental discourses and the Ivorian savanna" Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 90(1): 67-95.
*1997 "Defining Environmental Terms" (with D. Johnston, et. al.) Journal of Environmental Quality Vol 26(3): 581-589.
*1994 "Cartography and Empire Building in Nineteenth Century West Africa, Geographical Review 84 (3): 316-335.
*1994 "Hired Herders and Herd Management in Fulani Pastoralism (Northern Côte d'Ivoire) Cahiers d'Études Africaines, Nos. 133-135, pp. 147-73.
*1991 T. Bassett & P. Porter, "'From the Best Authorities:' The Mountains of Kong in the Cartography of West Africa," Journal of African History, 32 (3): 367-413.
*1988 T. Bassett, "The Political Ecology of Peasant-Herder Conflicts in Northern Ivory Coast, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 78 (3), 78 (3): pp. 453-472.
*1988 T. Bassett, "Development Theory and Reality: The World Bank in Northern Côte d'Ivoire," Review of African Political Economy, No. 41, pp. 45-59.
*1988 T. Bassett, "The Development of Cotton in Northern Ivory Coast, 1910- 1965," Journal of African History, 29 (3), pp. 267-84.
*1988 T. Bassett, "Breaking Up the Bottlenecks in Food Crop and Cotton Cultivation in Northern Côte d'Ivoire, Africa, 58 (2), pp. 147-174.
*1986 T. Bassett, "Fulani Herd Movements", Geographical Review, 26 (3), (July), pp. 234-248.
*1986 M. Watts & T. Bassett, "Politics, the State and Agrarian Development: A Comparative Study of Nigeria and the Ivory Coast," (with M. Watts) Political Geography Quarterly, 5 (2), pp. 103-125; a modified version of this article appeared as "Crisis and Change in African Agriculture: A Comparative Study of the Ivory Coast and Nigeria", African Studies Review, Vol. 28, No. 4, December, pp. 3-27.
1983 T. Bassett, "Les Cultures Vivrières, les Risques de Penurie et les Dégâts de Cultures", in Les Cultures Vivrières: Element Stratégique du Développement Agricole Ivoirien, Actes du Seminaire organisé par le Centre Ivoirien de Recherche Economique et Sociale du 11 au 15 mai 1982, tome 1, pp. 375- 388, (Abidjan, CIRES, 1983).
*1981 T. Bassett, "Reaping on the Margins: A Century of Community Gardening in America", Landscape, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 1-8.
Books
2003 K. Zimmerer and T. Bassett (eds) Political Ecology: An integrative approach to geography and environment-development studies (New York: Guilford).
2003 T. Bassett & D. Crummey (eds.) African Savannas: Global Narratives and Local Knowledge of Environmental Change in Africa (Oxford & Portsmuth, NH: James Currey Publishers & Heinemann).
2002 T. Bassett, Le coton des paysans: Une révolution agricole in Côte d'Ivoire (Paris: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement), French translation and revised version of The Peasant Cotton Revolution in West Africa with one new chapter and a revised conclusion.
2001 T. Bassett, The Peasant Cotton Revolution in West Africa: Côte d'Ivoire, 1880-1995, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
2000 T. Bassett & Y. Scheven, Maps of Africa to 1900: A Checklist of Maps in Atlases and Geographical Journals in the Collections of the Library of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (University of Illinois Library, Downs Publication Series No. 9)
1993 T. Bassett & D. Crummey (eds.) Land in African Agrarian Systems (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press), 418 p.
Chapters in Books
2004 T. Bassett & K. Zimmerer, "Cultural Ecology," in G. Gaile & C. Willmott (eds.) Geography in America at the Dawn of the 21st Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 97-112.
2003 K. Zimmerer & T. Bassett, "Introducing Political Ecology: Rethinking Nature and Scale in Human-Environment Studies," in K. Zimmerer and T. Bassett (eds.) Political Ecology: An Integrative Approach to Geography and Environment-Development Studies (New York: Guilford Press).
2003 T. Bassett & Koli Bi Zuéli, "The Ivorian Savanna: Global Narratives and Local Knowledge of Environmental Change," in K. Zimmerer and T. Bassett (eds.) Political Ecology: An Integrative Approach to Geography and Environment-Development Studies (NewYork: Guilford Press).
2003 T. Bassett and D. Crummey, "African Savannas: Contested Images, Contested Realities" (51 pp.) in T. Bassett & D. Crummey (eds.) African Savannas: Global Narratives and Local Knowledge of Environmental Change in Africa (Portsmuth, NH: James Currey Publishers).
2003 T. Bassett, Z. Koli Bi, and T. Ouattara, "Fire in the savanna: Environmental Change and Land Tenure Reform in Northern Côte d'Ivoire," (22 pp. + 6 figures) in T. Bassett & D. Crummey (eds.) African Savannas: Global Narratives and Local Knowledge of Environmental Change in Africa (Portsmuth, NH: James Currey Publishers).
2002 T. Bassett (2002), "Patrimoine et territoires de conservation dans le Nord de la Côte d'Ivoire," in M-C. Cormier-Salem, et al. Patrimonialiser la nature tropicale: dynamiques locales, enjeux internationaux (Paris, IRD), pp. 323-342.
2001 T. Bassett, "Côte d'Ivoire," Yamassoukro, World Book Encyclopedia (Chicago: World Book Publishing), pp. 5550, 1084-85.
2000 T. Bassett, "The spread of the pèle hoe in the Korhogo region (Côte d'Ivoire)" in Y. Marzouk, C. Seignobos, and François Sigqut (eds.) Outils aratoires en Afrique: Innovations, normes et traces (Paris: Karthala/IRD, 2000), pp. 33-51.
2000 T. Bassett and J. Boutrais, "Cattle and Trees in the West African Savanna," in R. Cline-Cole and C. Madge (eds.) Contesting Forestry: West African Processes, Relations, and Outcomes (Aldershot: Ashgate), pp. 242-263.
1999 T. Bassett & Koli Bi Zueli, "Fulbe pastoralism and environmental change in northern Côte d'Ivoire" in M. DeBruijn and H. van Dijk (eds.) Pastoralism under Pressure: Fulbe societies confronting change in West Africa (Brill, Amsterdam), 139-159.
1998 "Influenze africane sulla cartografia europea dell'Africa nei secoli XIX e XX" ("African influences on European mapping of Africa in the 19th and early 20th centuries") in E.Casti & A. Turco (eds.) Culture dell'alterità: il territorio africano e le sue rappresentazioni (Bergamo: Edizioni Unicopli), pp. 359-371.
1998 "Indigenous Mapmaking in Intertropical Africa" in D. Woodward and M. Lewis (eds), The History of Cartography, Vol 2, Bk 3: Cartography in the Traditonal African, American, Arctic, Australian, and Pacific Societies (Chicago, U. of Chicago Press),pp. 24-48.
1997 "African Maps and Mapmaking" in H. Selin (ed.) Encyclopedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, (Dordrecht, Kluwer), 554-558.
1995 T. Bassett, "L'introduction de la propriété de la terre: la cartographie et la Banque Mondiale en Côte d'Ivoire" in C. Blanc-Pamard & L. Cambrézy (eds.) Terre, terroir, territoire. Les tensions foncières (Paris, Editions de l’ORSTOM), pp. 395-420.
1995 T. Bassett, "The Uncaptured Corvée: Cotton in Côte d'Ivoire, 1912-1946," in A. Issacman and R. Roberts (eds.) Cotton in Colonial Africa (Portsmouth, NH, Heinemann), 247-267.
1994 T. Bassett, "Mapping the Terrain of Tenure Reform: The Rural Landholdings Project of Côte d'Ivoire" in J. Stone (ed.) Maps and Africa (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University African Studies Group) pp. 128-146. A modified version of this article appeared in Passages: A Chronicle of the Humanities published by the Program of African Studies at Northwestern University titled: "Cartography, ideology, and power: the World Bank in northern Côte d'Ivoire" in issue 5 (1993)
1993 T. Bassett, "Introduction: the Land Question and Agricultural Transformation in Africa," in Land in African Agrarian Systems (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press), pp. 3-31.
1993 T. Bassett, "Land Use Conflicts in Pastoral Development in Northern Côte d'Ivoire," in Land in African Agrarian Systems (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press), pp. 131-154.
1992 T. Bassett, "Côte d'Ivoire" in C. Legum and M. Doro (eds.) Africa Contemporary Record: Annual Survey and Documents, 1988-1989, (New York, Africana Publishing Company), pp. B28-39.
1991 T. Bassett, "Migration et féminisation de l'agriculture dans le nord de la Côte d'Ivoire," chapter in C. Meillassoux and B. Schlemmer (eds.) Déséquilibres démographiques, déséquilibres alimentaires, (Paris: Etudes et Documentations Internationales), pp. 219-45.
1989 T. Bassett, "Geographical Perspectives on Africa in the 1980s" In Geography in America, G. Gaile and C. Wilmott (eds.) (Columbus, OH: Merrill), pp. 468-487.
1979 T. Bassett, "Community Gardening in America", in Community Gardening: A Handbook, R. Wearne, (ed.), Brooklyn Botanic Garden Record, Plants and Gardens, Vol. 35, No. 1, Spring 1979. Also appears in Seed Trade News, Edina, MN, February 14, 1979.
Book Reviews (+ invited)
+2002 Review of Shady Practices: Agroforestry and Gender Politics in the Gambia: Geographical Review.
+2002 Review of Mapping an Empire: The Geographical Construction of British India, 1765-1843 M. Edny for the Annals of the Association of American Geographers 90:2:181-183.
+1999 Review of Mapping an Empire: The geographical construction of British India, 1765-1843 (Chicago: U. of Chicago Press) for the Annals of the Association of American Geographers.
+1999 Review of Rural Society and Cotton in Colonial Zaire by O. Likaka (Madison: U. of Wisconsin Press) for Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines 154 (XXXIX-2): 455-57.
+1998 Review of A Short History of the Cartography of Africa by Jeffrey C. Stone, (Lewsiton, NY, Edwin Mellen Press) for J. of Historical Geography.24 (4): pp. 488-9.
+1995 Review of Population Growth and Agricultural Change in Africa, B. L. Turner II, G. Hyden, and R. Kates (eds.), (Gainesville, U. Press of Florida, 1993) for Economic Geography, 71 (3): 332-35.
+1994 Review of Environmental Degradation and Desertification in Ghana: A Study of the Upper West Region by Kwasi Nsiah-Gyabaah (London: Avebury Ashgate Publishing Ltd for the Annals of Regional Science, 35:1, pp. 186-88.
+1992 Review of Colonialism and Development in the Contemporary World, C. Dixon and M. Heffernan (eds), (Mansell, 1990) for Political Geography Quarterly, 11(5): 514-515.
+1991 Review of The West African Sahel: Human Agency and Environmental Change, by J. A. Gritzner, (Chicago: University of Chicago, Geography Research Paper No. 226), for Progress in Human Geography.
+1990 Review of Agricultural Mechanization: The Economics of Animal Draft Power in West Africa (Boulder, CO: Westview), for Canadian Journal of African Studies.
+1989 Review of The Geography of the Third World: Progress and Prospect edited by M. Pacione (London, Routledge, 1988), for Annals of Regional Science.
1988 Review of Indigenous Agricultural Revolution: ecology and food production in West Africa (London, Hutchinson, 1985) and Coping with Hunger: hazard and experiment in an African rice-farming system (London: Allen and Unwin, 1986) by Paul Richards, for Progress in Human Geography 12 (4), pp. 589-592.
+1988 Review of The Development of Capitalism in Africa, by John Sender and Sheila Smith, Annals of Regional Science, 22 (2), pp. 144-145.
+1987 Review of Coping with Hunger: Hazard and Experiment in an African Rice Farming System by Paul Richards for the Geographical Review, 78 (1), pp. 102-103.
+1987 Review of Contemporary Africa by Morag Bell in The Professional Geographer, 39 (3),pp. 366-367.
Other Publications (Notes, Comments)
1994 "Comment" on Livestock, Land Use and Agricultural Intensification in Sub-Saharan Africa (paper 37a) by David Bourn and William Wint, ODI Pastoral Development Network Paper 37b (December 1994), pp. 14-17.