Actually Existing Development: Twentieth Century International Development and the Global South

Descripción del proyecto

Seguimiento de la aplicación del desarrollo del sur global

El desarrollo internacional, que facilitó la transferencia transfronteriza de fondos y conocimientos especializados, desempeñó un papel fundamental en el orden mundial del siglo XX. Sin embargo, la ejecución de los proyectos y, sobre todo, la dinámica de las bases siguen siendo poco conocidas. El proyecto DEVHIST, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, estudiará cómo las interacciones entre individuos y grupos configuraron los esfuerzos de desarrollo en el sur global entre los años cincuenta y noventa del siglo pasado. Al centrarse en la fase de ejecución, el proyecto sacará a la luz las discrepancias entre los objetivos previstos y los resultados reales, poniendo en primer plano las experiencias de las comunidades locales y los cooperantes de nivel medio. Mediante una metodología histórica innovadora, analizará fuentes olvidadas (incluidos archivos de proyectos y relatos locales) para ofrecer nuevas perspectivas de las iniciativas de desarrollo en Asia, África y América Latina.

Objetivo

International development—the cross-border transfer of funds and expertise for developmental purposes—formed a core plank of the twentieth century international system. But we still know very little about the grassroots dynamics of international development in the twentieth century. DEVHIST will be the first project to systematically examine the encounters between individuals, groups and worldviews that both attended and often reshaped international development at points of implementation across the Global South, from the 1950s to the 1990s. Taking the site of implementation as a dynamic space of renegotiation, this project will expose and interrogate the gap between planned and Actually Existing Development in the twentieth century. Uncovering the complex negotiations that remade international development projects at the point of implementation will reveal the previously unseen viewpoints and agency of Global South communities and mid-level aid workers on the international system. A more granular understanding of the lived experience of international development, including the coercion, resistance and renegotiation that often attended development projects in the Global South, will also facilitate a re-evaluation of historical international development and the broader systems of global governance that emerged in the post-war period. To achieve these outcomes, DEVHIST will pioneer a multiscalar historical methodology that traces international development programmes through every stage of their lifecycle, and draw upon a previously neglected source base including Project Files and Global South-produced accounts. It will apply this approach to programmes and projects implemented by a range of development actors, including Western and Eastern bloc state development agencies, multilateral development banks, international organisations, and development NGOs, in Asia, Africa and Latin America.