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Feeling the Colonial: Affective Decolonisation in Development Studies Classrooms

By Carla Maria Friederike Diem / part of our “Share your Decolonising Story” project

“I hope for a world where International Development Studies cease to exist.” was the first line of my motivation letter to the University of Amsterdam (UvA). A provocation, yes – but also a belief. A way to signal that I saw the contradictions at the heart of the discipline – that a field born out of colonial legacies, and sustained by the hierarchies it claims to dismantle, cannot be reformed without eventually ceasing to exist. I thought this was an idealistic position. What I did not realise was just how intimately I would come to feel the weight of those contradictions – in my emotions, in my learning, and in my hope.

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Decolonizing Policy Advice: The Oxymoronic Nature of Danish Researchers Advising a Danish Ministry on a Danish Plan for Africa

By Adam Moe Fejerskov, Mikkel Funder and Nauja Kleist / part of our “Share your Decolonising Story” project

Denmark has a new strategy for engaging with Africa. In this blog follow some reflections on how we at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) collaborated with colleagues in African research institutions to turn the usual North-driven ”Policy Brief” on its head. Because who gets to influence development policy in European capitals? Who should influence development policy in European capitals? And should European capitals at all be making strategies and plans for Africa?

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Thinking Beyond the Colonial Ecosystem

By Touseef Mir / part of our “Share your Decolonising Story” project

The concept of development has been significant in shaping the current texture of the world and society around us. Not only was development an important tool of the European colonial enterprise, but the notion of development also resonates with similar power hierarchies. However, there is increasing realisation, especially within academia, about not only the colonial beginnings of development but its continued and significant (neo)colonial hues, be it in theory, policy or praxis of development.

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Learning and Unlearning: Sowing the Seeds of a Decolonising Mindset

By Peter Taylor / part of our “Share your Decolonising Story” project

Beginnings

I grew up in an industrial town in the North of the United Kingdom, and as a child my experience of agriculture was visiting the countryside, rather than working on farms. Along the way, I became very interested in farming and food production, and my first job was working on a dairy farm. I went on to study agricultural science at University. After that, I continued working for several years in different areas of agriculture and horticulture, enjoying the practical side of things, even when spending much of my time in wet, windy and cold conditions.

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Confronting My Family’s Colonial Past. A Personal Journey

By Martha Knight / part of our “Share your Decolonising Story” project

Unravelling the threads that shape our understanding of the impacts of colonialism is a multifaceted and highly complex task.  I know this because I teach Global Development for the Open University (OU) and grapple with decolonising dominant discourses around development and change.  However, this is a personal story.  This is a story which goes beyond the intellectual challenge of decolonising knowledge and sits squarely with my family’s role in colonialism.  Something I only discovered recently.

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