Development as Experiment

Science and State Building in Late Colonial and Postcolonial Africa, 1930-1970

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3924437
AutoresChristophe Bonneuil (0009-0007-3463-4828, autor de correspondencia)
Año2000
Volumen15
Páginas258-281
Fecha de publicación2000-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaOsiris (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0369-7827 • E-ISSN: 1933-8287
EditorialUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/649330
OpenAlexW1997252438
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas86

This paper explores the continuous role that science has played in the establishment of a colonial and post-colonial "development regime" in Africa. Examining development schemes that flourished between 1930 and 1970, the paper shows how African agrarian societies became objects of both state intervention and expert knowledge. In pursuing large scale social engineering and social experiments, these schemes constituted a particular--colonial?--way of managing the African environment and of crafting knowledge on African societies. In constructing development ideologies and practices in the late colonial and post independence periods, they also played an important part in the construction of the African state. Their approaches shaped the future of tropical medicine, agriculture, and development studies. Ironically, they also created the preconditions for later interest in the values of indigenous knowledge

Agrarian society · Agriculture · Archaeology · Colonialism · Ethnology · Ideology · Independence (probability theory · Indigenous · Intervention (counseling · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science · State formation · African history and culture studies · Ecology · History · Law