The Idea of Development in Africa

Erscheinungsjahr 2020
ISBN: 978-1-107-10369-6
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 280 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 640 g

Reihe: New Approaches to African History

The Idea of Development in Africa challenges prevailing international development discourses about the continent, by tracing the history of ideas, practices, and 'problems' of development used in Africa. In doing so, it offers an innovative approach to examining the history and culture of development through the lens of the development episteme, which has been foundational to the 'idea of Africa' in western discourses since the early 1800s. The study weaves together an historical narrative of how the idea of development emerged with an account of the policies and practices of development in colonial and postcolonial Africa. The book highlights four enduring themes in African development, including their present-day ramifications: domesticity, education, health, and industrialization. Offering a balance between historical overview and analysis of past and present case studies, Elisabeth McMahon and Corrie Decker demonstrate that Africans have always co-opted, challenged, and reformed the idea of development, even as the western-centric development episteme presumes a one-way flow of ideas and funding from the West to Africa.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Decker, Corrie

McMahon, Elisabeth

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Entwicklungspolitik, Nord-Süd Beziehungen
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Internationale Wirtschaft Entwicklungsökonomie & Emerging Markets
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Entwicklungsstudien
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Afrikanische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction; Part I. Origins of the Development Episteme: 1. From Progress to Development; 2. Knowledge and the Development Episteme; 3. Eugenics and Racism in the Development Episteme; 4. Decolonizing the Idea of Development; Part II. Implementation of the Development Episteme: 5. The Salvation of Science; 6. Challenges to Development; 7. From Modernization to Structural Adjustment; 8. The New Missionaries; Part III. Development 'Problems': 9. Reshaping Huts and Homes; 10. Lessons in Separate Development; 11. Capitalizing on Dis-Ease; 12. Manufacturing Modernization; 13. African Critiques of the Development Episteme.

Über Autor(innen)

McMahon, Elisabeth
Elisabeth McMahon is Associate Professor of History at Tulane University, Louisiana. She is the author of Slavery and Emancipation in Islamic East Africa: From Honor to Respectability (2013) and numerous articles in International Labor and Working-Class History, Slavery and Abolition, International Journal of African Historical Studies, Women's History Review, Journal of Women's History, Africa Today, Journal of Social History and Quaker History. She led the digital humanities project, the African Letters Project in conjunction with the Amistad Research Center, making letters written by Africans during decolonization accessible globally.

Decker, Corrie
Corrie Decker is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Davis. She is the author of Mobilizing Zanzibari Women: The Struggle for Respectability and Self-Reliance (2014) and numerous articles in the Journal of Women's History, the International Journal of African Historical Studies, Past and Present, Africa Today, and the American Historical Review. She is currently writing a book on the history of puberty in twentieth-century East Africa.