A History of Development in Africa - Einzelansicht

In this Übung (Exercise), we will focus on a close reading of Corrie Decker and Elisabeth McMahon’s ”The Idea of Development in Africa: A History” (New Approaches to African History, Cambridge University Press, 2020) to understand the complexities of development thinking on and about the continent. About the book: "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." (Cambridge book description). We will substitute the central course reading with other texts on development.

Cooper, Frederick. "Writing the History of Development." Journal of Modern European History 8, no. 1 (2010): 5-23.

Decker, Corrie, Elisabeth Mcmahon. The Idea of Development in Africa: A History. New Approaches to African History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.

Lorenzini, Sara. Global Development. A Cold War History. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019.

Moyo, Dambisa. Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa. 2010.

Unger, Corinna R. . International Development: A Postwar History. London: Bloomsbury, 2018.

Students are required to deliver work in accordance with their Studienordnung.