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

International developmentthe cross-border transfer of funds and expertise for developmental purposesformed 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.