There has been a lot of discussion over the past few years about Empire and it’s impact upon the present day, especially with the toppling of the Colston statue and the BLM protests in 2020. However, what is not as often discussed is the financial and corporate legacy left by the British and other European Empires. Kojo Koram is the author of the brand new book, Uncommon Wealth, on this very topic. In this show he walked me through the key points of his book – namely how much of the empire did not disappear with decolonisation, but instead, it morphed into the global corporate/financial empire that has come to dominate the world today.
Dr Kojo Koram is a Lecturer in Law at Birkbeck School of Law, University of London. He joined Birkbeck in September 2018, prior to which he was a Lecturer at the School of Law at the University of Essex between 2016-2018.
Before working in academia, Kojo worked in social welfare law, as well as youth work and teaching. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2011 and then received his PhD in 2017. In 2018, the Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities awarded his PhD the Julien Mezey Dissertation Award for the dissertation that most promises to enrich and advance interdisciplinary scholarship at the intersection of law, culture and the humanities.
https://www.theguardian.com/profile/kojo-koram
Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire – https://uk.bookshop.org/a/6492/9781529338621
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Timestamps
0:00 – Intro
2:04 – Why did Kojo write Uncommon Wealth?
8:45 – How much was the government involved in the business side of Empire?
17:58 – The long history of modern corporations
27:39 – The iron law of oligarchy
30:18 – Decolonisation to financial empire
36:09 – Countries that have challenged corporations
45:55 – Culture war – challenging the status quo
47:59 – Can we have an objective discussion about Empire
53:18 – Reframing the discussion about Empire
