Abstract

In this book some of the leading thinkers in development studies trace the history of their multi-disciplinary subject from the late colonial period and its establishment during decolonization all the way through to its contemporary concerns with poverty reduction. They present a critical genealogy of development by looking at the contested evolution and roles of development institutions and exploring changes in development discourses. These recollections, by those who teach, research and practise development, challenge simplistic, unilinear periodizations of the evolution of the discipline, and draw attention to those ongoing critiques of development studies, including Marxism, feminism and postcolonialism, which so often have been marginalized in mainstream development discourse. The contributors combine personal and institutional reflections, with an examination of key themes, including gender and development, NGOs, and natural resource management. The book is radical in that it challenges orthodoxies of development theory and practice and highlights concealed, critical discourses that have been written out of conventional stories of development. The contributors provide different versions of the history of development by inscribing their experiences and interpretations, some from left-inclined intellectual perspectives. Their accounts elucidate a more complex and nuanced understanding of development studies over time, simultaneously revealing common themes and trends, and they also attempt to reposition Development Studies along a more critical trajectory.. The volume is intended to stimulate new thinking on where the discipline may be moving. It ought also to be of great use to students coming to grips with the historical continuities and divergences in the theory and practice of development.
Uma Kothari is a senior lecturer in development studies at the School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester. She has carried out research in India and Mauritius and her research interests include histories and theories of development, colonial and post-colonial discourse, social development and migration and development. She is co-editor of Participation: The New Tyranny? (Zed Books, 2001, with B. Cooke) and Development Theory and Practice: Critical Perspectives (2002, with M. Minogue). She has recently published the chapter ‘Sweetening Colonialism: A Mauritian Themed Resort’ (2003) in M. Lasansky and B. McClaren (eds), Architecture and Tourism (with T. Edensor), edited a special issue of Journal of International Development on ‘Migration, Staying Put and Poverty’ (2003) and published ‘Authority and expertise: the professionalisation of international development and the ordering of dissent’ in Antipode (2005).

'Provides a critical analysis of the history of international development...the contributors adopt a distinct radical perspective on the subject.'
International Review of Social History

'Overall, it is a stimulating book ... very well documented, it facilitates a retracing of the history of the field and it also highlights how individuals involved had to continually rethink or revisit what they had been doing.'
Development and Change