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The Art of Chameleon Politics: From Colonial Servant to International Development Expert
- Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development
- University of Pennsylvania Press
- Volume 9, Number 2, Summer 2018
- pp. 219-244
- 10.1353/hum.2018.0012
- Article
- Additional Information
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Abstract:
The article explores the continuities between imperial and international development efforts by examining the post-1945 career trajectory of a British colonial forester turned United Nations development expert. While previous scholarship has stressed the close links between late colonial and postcolonial development work, this microhistory offers a different perspective: it suggests that the experience of decolonization rather than colonial service proved crucially formative for a career in international development. The article suggests that decolonization should be understood not as a clear-cut break or a neocolonial transformation, but instead as an open-ended process to which malleable individuals adapted their thinking and practices.