From Colonial Administration to Development Studies: a Postcolonial Critique of the History of Development Studies

TL;DRAbstract

In this chapter I foreground and explore a different history of development studies to that which is conventionally rehearsed. Here I examine the colonial genealogy of development studies through the lives and experiences of individuals whose careers stretch across different historical moments encompassing the administration of colonies and the establishment and emergence of development studies in institutes of Higher Education in the UK. The postcolonial analysis of the history of development studies that is presented here challenges orthodox versions of its history and questions the conventional start date of 1945 as marking the beginning of development. The aim is to identify the traces of colonialism that pervade the workings of the post-independence international development aid industry and highlight the extent and form of the relationship between colonialism and contemporary development studies. Furthermore, through the narratives that are presented in this chapter, former colon

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