A Radical History of Development Studies: Individuals, Institutions and Ideologies

by Uma Kothari (Editor)

A Radical History of Development Studies traces the history of the subject from the late colonial period all the way through to contemporary focus on poverty reduction.

In this now classic genealogy of development, the authors look at the contested evolution and roles of development institutions and explore changes in development discourses. Combining personal and institutional reflections with an examination of key themes, including gender and development, NGOs, and natural resource management, A Radical History of Development Studies challenges mainstream development theory and practice and highlights concealed, critical discourses that have been written out of conventional stories of development.

The volume is intended to stimulate thinking on future directions for the discipline. It also provides an indispensable resource for students coming to grips with the historical continuities and divergences in the theory and practice of development.

Genres: International Development

240 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2005

Reviews

[Laya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess a chapter here and there were very good but this was less academic and more personal than I expected. This is essentially very very good primary material for Uma’s thesis on tracing histories of professionals and associated ideologies within development studies which turned out into an okay-ish book for readers. It was nice to read reflective life histories from John Harriss and Robert Chambers. The chapter by Phil Woodhouse and Admission Chimhowu on overview of trends within ecological sciences and later political ecology and its relationship to thinking in natural resource management in development studies was the best one of this book imo. It had more of the vast literature review that I expected from the different thematic chapters in the book.