Lantern on the Stern
Policy Analysis, Historical Research, and Pax Britannica in Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2595159 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Emma Roe (0000-0001-5278-815X, corresponding author), Emery M Roe |
| Year | 1987 |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 45 |
| Publication date | 1987-03-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | African Studies Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-0206 • E-ISSN: 1555-2462 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/524503 |
| OpenAlex | W2013137645 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 18 |
If men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us! But passion and party blind our eyes, and the light which experience gives is a lantern on the stern, which shines only on the waves behind us! Coleridge A contradiction hitherto not adequately examined exists between historical research and policy analysis in modern African studies. The more familiar difficulty between policy-makers, who want answers, and historians and social scientists, who find instead complexity and uncertainty, has been much discussed and is not pursued here. Rather, a more subtle tension operates in the work of those policy analysts who use historical research in their work, particularly when these analysts are government advisors in Africa. History has always had an equivocal role in policy analysis. On one side, an important part of the profession embraces project evaluation and implementation analysis, both of which can involve historical research. In the former, the analyst tries to understand the impact of a project in terms of its past performance, while the latter uses past performance as the basis for improved design of future projects. On the other side, historical research is not considered an essential part of the analyst's graduate training, at least in the United States. One would be hard-pressed, for example, to find an American public policy school that required history alongside core courses in statistics, microeconomics, law, and political science. This ambivalence over the role of historical research is best illustrated by the unheeded calls analysts themselves have made and continue to make for more historical research in their own profession. In an essay on policy analysis familiar to many U.S.-trained analysts, the author opines “historical genesis is a much underplayed aspect of the analysis of social programs” and recommends that a more overtly historical perspective should inform policy analysis generally (Nelson, 1977: 152; Chapter 8
Ancient history · Geography · Lantern · Political science · Stern · African cultural and philosophical studies · Historical Education Studies Worldwide · History · Pragmatism in Philosophy and Education
Evaluation research
Colonialism and underdevelopment in east Africa
Using social research in public policy making
The rise and fall of the South African peasantry
Planning and budgeting in poor countries
Essence of Decision
Class and economic change in Kenya
Risk and Culture
The Expatriate Advisor as Senior Policy Analyst
An African Economy. A Study of the Economic Development of the Nyanza Province of Kenya, 1903-1953
The Colonial Transformation of Kenya
Underdevelopment in Kenya, the Political Economy of Neo-Colonialism, 1964-71
Terra Incognito Australis
Colonial Rule and the Kamba
Underdevelopment in Kenya
The Revenge of Literature
A History of the British Medical Administration of East Africa, 1900-1950
The Development of Peasant Commodity Production in Kenya, 1920-40
| Citations per year | 0.03 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1991 - 1991 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |