A Radical History of Development Studies Individuals, Institutions and Ideologies

by Kothari, Uma

• ISBN13: 9781842775257
• ISBN10: 1842775251
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-14
• Publisher: Zed Books

Summary

In this thought-provoking collection, some of the leading thinkers in Development Studies come together to examine the history of their multi-disciplinary subject from its emergence during the era of decolonization half a century ago to its contemporary emphasis on poverty reduction. They combine personal and institutional reflections with an examination of key themes, including the intrusion into a subject traditionally dominated by Economics of social development considerations, gender awareness, and environmental concerns. They draw attention to those ongoing critiques of development studies, including Marxism and post-development discourse which have been so often marginalized in representations of the mainstream development discourse.

Author Biography

Uma Kothari is at the Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	viii
A radical history of development studies: individuals, institutions and ideologies	1	(14)
Uma Kothari
Why a radical history of development studies?	1	(2)
Understanding development studies	3	(4)
What the book says	7	(8)
Individuals and institutions	15	(94)
Great promise, hubris and recovery: a participant's history of development studies	17	(30)
John Harriss
Prologomenon: the era of the `positivist orthodoxy'	19	(4)
The promise of development studies	23	(7)
Hubris in the 1980s?	30	(6)
Reinvention in the 1990s and the challenge of Act	36	(2)
Conclusion: critical engagement with globalization	38	(9)
From colonial administration to development studies: a post-colonial critique of the history of development studies	47	(20)
Uma Kothari
Understanding the colonial legacy of development studies	48	(2)
Obscuring a colonial genealogy	50	(2)
Memory, narratives and history	52	(3)
From colonial administration to development studies	55	(6)
Continuities and divergences	61	(6)
Critical reflections of a development nomad	67	(21)
Robert Chambers
Nomad and journey	68	(5)
Reflections	73	(7)
A radical agenda for future development studies: qualifications, caveats and context	80	(2)
Conclusion: a radical reconfiguration?	82	(6)
Secret diplomacy uncovered: research on the World Bank in the 1960s and 1980s	88	(21)
Teresa Hayter
The purposes of aid: early illusions at the Overseas Development Institute	88	(3)
Research on the World Bank: an encounter with reality	91	(4)
Reality is not for publication: the World Bank's attempts to `bury' the ODI report	95	(4)
The World Bank revisited	99	(8)
The World Bank is finally exposed	107	(2)
Ideas and ideologies	109	(113)
Development studies and the Marxists	111	(27)
Henry Bernstein
Development studies I. The founding moment: big issues and big ideas	112	(3)
Development studies II. The age of neo-liberalism: how less becomes more, and more less	115	(6)
And the Marxists? I. Political struggle and intellectual dynamism	121	(5)
And the Marxists? II. Political defeats and beyond	126	(4)
Conclusion	130	(8)
Journeying in radical development studies: a reflection on thirty years of researching pro-poor development	138	(19)
John Cameron
The original context	139	(1)
The mid-1970s: Marxian modes of production analysis	140	(2)
The early 1980s: engaging with a potentially developmentalist state	142	(2)
Later 1980s: malign external hands and neo-liberal resource allocation priorities	144	(3)
The early 1990s: thinking development anew, ancient and postmodern	147	(2)
The mid-1990s: closely observing poverty	149	(1)
The late 1990s: back to basics	150	(1)
The present looking to the future	151	(6)
The rise and rise of gender and development	157	(23)
Ruth Pearson
The birth of gender	158	(2)
Integrating gender into development analysis and planning	160	(3)
From equality to empowerment	163	(3)
Mainstreaming gender in international development	166	(2)
What is the development agenda that needs gendering?	168	(7)
Is it better to travel hopefully than to arrive?	175	(5)
Development studies, nature and natural resources: changing narratives and discursive practices	180	(20)
Phil Woodhouse
Admos Chimhowu
Colonial administration and the management of nature	181	(2)
Modernist and populist narratives	183	(4)
The crisis of modernization and the rise of populist environmentalism: the 1970s and 1980s	187	(5)
`Incorporated environmentalism' and political ecology: the 1990s	192	(3)
Conclusion	195	(5)
Individuals, organizations and public action: trajectories of the `non-governmental' in development studies	200	(22)
David Lewis
Encountering the non-governmental	200	(3)
NGOs in development studies	203	(4)
Re-remembering hidden histories?	207	(2)
Problems of NGO research in development studies	209	(5)
Looking back at the rise of non-governmentalism	214	(1)
Conclusion	215	(7)
About the contributors	222	(4)
Index	226