Benedict Craven

Benedict joined UNRISD in January 2015 to assist in the ongoing projects "New Directions in Social Policy, Alternatives from and for the Global South", "Towards Universal Social Security in Emerging Economies" and "Social Policy in Post-Conflict Settings".

Benedict completed an M.Sc. in Development Studies at SOAS, University of London in September 2014 with Distinction. His thesis paper was a critique of the "resource curse" theory; a purported inverse relationship between a state's resource abundance and its economic growth and social development. The paper challenged claims that this is a cause of economic and social policy challenges in the Gulf Cooperation Council region, questioning the contemporary relevance of the theory and demonstrating that a more holistic analysis reveals it to be of secondary importance to other key economic, political and social determinants.

His interests lie in labour markets, social policies and the politics of capital ownership in the Gulf region, the changing nature of refugee status in Europe and the impacts of globalized trade relations between the Global North and South on development.