Fellow Travellers in Development

Abstract

Although what has been called ‘the people-centred development decade’ of international aid in the 1990s can be explained at the systemic level by the end of the Cold War, such an account does not tell us how it actually came about. This article argues that a contributory factor can be identified through the life-histories of a generation of development semi- professionals, women now in their sixties who were caught up and part of two great emancipatory moments in the second half of the 20 century: freedom from colonialism and women's liberation. These shaped their consciousness and produced political effects that gave them the opportunity to influence development practice. That they were able to make use of that opportunity is attributed to their versatility and entrepreneurship, developed through a force of circumstance that had given them an education but denied them the traditional career path taken by their male peers.

Notes

I am grateful to my fellow travellers for their willingness to engage in this project, including providing critical feedback on an earlier draft. Thanks also to Meike Fechter for her support and encouragement.

1 These are pseudonyms.

2 http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/135600.html.

3 See the argument about the value of life-histories in this respect in D Lewis, ‘Using Life Histories in Social Policy Research: The Case of Third Sector/Public Sector Boundary Crossing', Journal of Social Policy 37(4), 2008, pp 559–578.

4 U Kothari, ‘Spatial practices and imaginaries: experiences of colonial officers and development professionals’, Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 27, 2006, p 236.

5 C Six, ‘The rise of postcolonial states as donors: a challenge to the development paradigm?’, Third World Quarterly, 30(6), 2009, pp 1103–1121.

6 A-M Fechter & K Walsh, ‘Examining “expatriate” continuities: postcolonial approaches to mobile professionals’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 36(8), 2010, p 1203.

7 Kothari, ‘Spatial practices and imaginaries’.

8 S Aiston, ‘A maternal identity? The family lives of British women graduates pre- and post-1945’, History of Education, 34(4), 2005, pp 407–426.

9 A Mackinnon, Women, Love and Learning: The Double Bind, Bern: Peter Lang, 2010.

10 A Coles, ‘Making multiple migrations: the life of British diplomatic families overseas’, in A Coles & A-M Fechter (eds), Gender and Family among Transnational Professionals, Abingdon: Routledge, 2008, p 125.

11 A Coles & A-M Fechter, in A Coles & A-M Fechter (eds), Gender and Family among Transnational Professionals, Abingdon: Routledge, 2008.

12 In commenting on an earlier draft of this article, Carol mentioned how, when she used to fly business class to Africa and Asia, it was common for her to be the only woman in the cabin.

13 N Hartsock, ‘Moments, margins, and agency’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 88(4), 1998, p 710.

14 K McKinnon, ‘Postdevelopment, professionalism, and the politics of participation’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 97(4), 2007, pp 772–785.

15 K Plummer, Documents of Life, London: Allen and Unwin, 1983.

16 C Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959.

17 Some of the details of this correspondence, including all personal names, have been changed to protect the anonymity of the four subjects of this article, other than the author.

18 See R Eyben, ‘Becoming a feminist in Aidland’, in Coles & Fechter, Gender and Family among Transnational Professionals.

19 P Ricoeur, Memory, History and Forgetting, trans D Pellauer & R McLaughin, Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 2004.

20 Second person enquiry is the co-construction of knowledge between two or more people who are researching into their own practice. It is distinguished from ‘first person enquiry’, in which one researches oneself, and ‘third person enquiry’, the more conventional method by which a researcher studies other people. See W Torbert, ‘The practice of action inquiry’, in P Reason & H Bradbury (eds), Handbook of Action Research, London: Sage, 2001.

21 See, for example, R Dumont, L'Afrique est mal partie, Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1962; and D Seers, ‘International aid: the next steps’, Journal of Modern African Studies, 2(4), 1964, pp 471–489.

22 P Theroux, ‘Tarzan is an expatriate’, Transition, 32, 1967, pp 13–19.

23 For more about being a hostess in Aidland, see Eyben. ‘Becoming a feminist in Aidland’.

24 One-third of all women graduating from Girton College, Cambridge in the early 1960s became teachers. Cambridge University Appointments Board up to the 1960s was said to offer teaching and secretarial work as the chief options. P Thane, ‘The careers of female graduates of Cambridge University, 1920s–1970s’, in D Mitch, J Brown & M Van Leeuwen (eds), Origins of the Modern Career, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004.

25 H Callan & S Ardener (eds), The Incorporated Wife, London: Croom Helm, 1984.

26 R Manning, ‘What's the future of international aid?’, unpublished notes for the Kapuscinski Lecture at the Economic University, Prague, 5 April 2011.

27 See also J Ferguson, ‘Of mimicry and membership: Africans and the “New World Society”’, Cultural Anthropology, 17(4), 2002, pp 551–569.

28 O Dwivedi & J Nef, ‘Crises and continuities in development theory and administration: First and Third World perspectives’, Public Administration and Development, 2, 1982, pp 59–77.

29 M Mamdani, T Mkandawire & W Wamba, ‘Social movements, social transformation and struggles for democracy in Africa’, Economic and Political Weekly, 7 May 1988, pp 973–981.

30 World Bank, Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa, Washington, DC: World Bank, 1981.

31 A Cornia, R Jolly & F Stewart, Adjustment with a Human Face, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.

32 Craig & Porter, cited in D Mosse, ‘Introduction’, in D Mosse (ed), Adventures in Aidland, New York: Berghan Press, 2011.

33 For further discussion of this point, see R Eyben, ‘Mainstreaming the social dimension into the Overseas Development Administration: a partial history’, Journal of International Development, 15, 2003, pp 879–892 and also the author's forthcoming publications.