International Development: A Postwar History

The author surveys the history of international development policies and practices in the 20th century in various political, economic, cultural, and geographical settings. She considers when and where the idea of development originated; how it evolved into the professional, competitive policy and business field of today; the key players involved and how they influenced the discourses and practices that shape development approaches today; how international, global, and regional political and economic changes impacted development policies and projects; and the historical meaning of development as a political and cultural practice from a long-term perspective. She focuses on the decades after the end of World War II and how individuals, governments, and organizations tried to implement their visions of development; how much room they had to promote their development agendas; aspects they were able to realize; and aspects that remain theory. She discusses definitions and concepts of development and the history of economic ideas about inequality and economic growth, as well as the role of industrialization in the development process, the unequal development of different world regions, and how economists of the early and mid-20th century interpreted these problems and which solutions they advocated; the forerunners of development thinking and practice; the emergence of the concept of development between the early 1930s and the early 1950s; the political meaning of development in the postwar period; different development approaches and practices in the post-war decade; the critique of mainstream development thinking and practices in the postwar years; and the search for new meanings of development in the 1970s. Annotation ©2018 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)