As households move out of poverty, their spending patterns change. From a human development perspective, this is good and important, but changing consumer behaviour may result in significantly more CO2 emissions. The lifestyles of growing global middle classes decide whether this happens.
A growing number of policymakers, researchers and funding bodies have gotten excited about transformative research on Africa. Transformative research, they claim, may support progress towards economic, social and environmental sustainability in Africa and may enhance the participation of local actors in development research and cooperation. This may happen, if we actually knew what transformative research meant and how best to go about it.