IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/prodev/v16y2016i3p229-243.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The colonial present in international development? The case of German interventions in obstetric care in Tanzania

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Bendix

    (Department of Development and Postcolonial Studies, Institute of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kassel, Germany)

Abstract

This article investigates whether colonialism is alive in contemporary German development cooperation (GDC) on obstetric care in Tanzania. Drawing on archives and interviews, it compares present-day interventions to German policy in ‘German East Africa’ (GEA) at the beginning of the 20th century. It argues that contemporary development cooperation can be considered colonial to a certain extent in that it is marked by a combination of racialization, developmentalism and trusteeship. However, colonial power today is fractured as German development professionals’ accounts of their work display a considerable degree of hesitancy and doubt. This article contributes to the knowledge on colonialism and development by discerning colonial power in the under-researched case of GDC as well as in the context of concrete policy and practice in a particular field of intervention.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Bendix, 2016. "The colonial present in international development? The case of German interventions in obstetric care in Tanzania," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 16(3), pages 229-243, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:prodev:v:16:y:2016:i:3:p:229-243
    DOI: 10.1177/1464993416641579
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1464993416641579
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1464993416641579?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Slater & Morag Bell, 2002. "Aid and the Geopolitics of the Post‐Colonial: Critical Reflections on New Labour’s Overseas Development Strategy," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 33(2), pages 335-360, April.
    2. Michael Woolcock & Simon Szreter & Vijayendra Rao, 2011. "How and Why Does History Matter for Development Policy?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(1), pages 70-96.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Olivia D'Aoust & Olivier Sterck, 2016. "Who Benefits from Customary Justice? Rent-seeking, Bribery and Criminality in sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 25(3), pages 439-467.
    2. Pushkar, 2012. "Democracy and Infant Mortality in India’s ‘Mini-democracies’: A Preliminary Theoretical Inquiry and Analysis," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 7(2), pages 109-137, October.
    3. Prowse, Martin, 2011. "A century of growth? A history of tobacco production and marketing in Malawi 1890-2005," IOB Working Papers 2011.10, Universiteit Antwerpen, Institute of Development Policy (IOB).
    4. Faraz Usmani & Marc Jeuland & Subhrendu K. Pattanayak, 2018. "NGOs and the effectiveness of interventions," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-59, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Shields, Robin & Menashy, Francine, 2019. "The network of bilateral aid to education 2005–2015," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 74-80.
    6. Florian Becker-Ritterspach & Tico Raaijman, 2013. "Global Transfer and Indian Management," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 141-166, February.
    7. Brown, Tim & Bell, Morag, 2008. "Imperial or postcolonial governance? Dissecting the genealogy of a global public health strategy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(10), pages 1571-1579, November.
    8. Wolcott, Susan, 2010. "Explorations' contribution to the 'Asian Century'," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 360-367, July.
    9. Michael Woolcock, 2013. "Using Case Studies to Explore the External Validity of ‘Complex’ Development Interventions," CID Working Papers 270, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    10. Gemma Sou, 2022. "Aid micropolitics: Everyday southern resistance to racialized and geographical assumptions of expertise," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 40(4), pages 876-894, June.
    11. Fernando Zanella & Christopher Westley, 2015. "Degredados, Their Human Agency, and Micro Institutions in Colonial Brazil: An Institutionalist Reinterpretation," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(1), pages 143-156, January.
    12. Woolcock, Michael, 2013. "Using Case Studies to Explore the External Validity of 'Complex' Development Interventions," Working Paper Series rwp13-048, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    13. Park, Albert Sanghoon, 2017. "Does the Development Discourse Learn from History?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 52-64.
    14. Luc Fransen, 2013. "The Embeddedness of Responsible Business Practice: Exploring the Interaction Between National-Institutional Environments and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(2), pages 213-227, June.
    15. Giles Mohan & Gordon Wilson, 2005. "The antagonistic relevance of development studies," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 5(4), pages 261-278, October.
    16. Barrientos Quiroga, Paola Andrea, 2013. "Convergence Clubs determined by Economic History in Latin America," MPRA Paper 50191, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Sheraz, Umar, 2014. "Foresight as a tool for sustainable development in natural resources: The case of mineral extraction in Afghanistan," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 92-100.
    18. Decker, Stephanie & Estrin, Saul & Mickiewicz, Tomasz, 2020. "The tangled historical roots of entrepreneurial growth aspirations," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 102989, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2016. "Review Essay on British Economic Growth, 1270-1870 by Stephen Broadberry, Bruce M. S. Campbell, Alexander Klein, Mark Overton, and Bas van Leeuwen," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(2), pages 514-521, June.
    20. Chen, Xing & Zhao, Ru-lan & Zhang, Zi-ke & Zhao, Jing, 2016. "Network-based study on the relationship between arms exports and foreign policies," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 444(C), pages 194-204.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:prodev:v:16:y:2016:i:3:p:229-243. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.