From the Holocaust to Development: reflections of surviving development pioneers

David Simon

Third World Quarterly, 2009, vol. 30, issue 5, 849-884

Abstract: This paper reports on one element of a research project on Holocaust survivors who subsequently became prominent in the emerging field of development studies. Part of the extended interviews with survivors involved retrospective reflections on the evolution and current state of their branch of development studies. This material, augmented by an interrogation of their published work, provides fascinating ‘insider’ perspectives on the kaleidoscope of changing ideologies, theories, discourses, policies and practices subsumed under the label of ‘development’. While the particular nature of this set of interviewees calls for caution in generalising from the findings, they appear far less unrepresentative than might be imagined, both because the subjects are diverse in terms of nationality, age, socialisation, wartime experiences and subsequent career tracks, and because they forged prominent contributions to, and were shaped by, the evolving Zeitgeist of development during an era when its imperative was virtually unquestioned. The paper incorporates interviewees' own voices, interpreting their perspectives in terms of their personal characteristics and positionalities and in relation to contemporaneous development debates. It thus contributes both to the history/archaeology of development and to ongoing critical debates about its nature.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1080/01436590902959057

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