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The Roots of Community Development in Colonial Office Policy and Practice in Africa
Author: Rosaleen Smyth
Source: Social Policy and Administration, Volume 38, Number 4, August 2004 , pp. 418-436(19)
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Abstract:
This paper looks at the origins of ideas about community development as they emerged during Britain's administration of its African colonies from the 1920s to the 1950s. Significant influences on development policy and practice include changing ideas about state intervention within the British government, international scrutiny from international organizations, US interest in Africa, ideas and activities of missionary societies, technological developments, great leaps forward by key individuals, examples of state-sponsored mass education schemes in Russia, colonial disturbances, and cataclysmic events such as the Great Depression, the rise of Hitler, and pre-eminently, the Second World War itself. The evolution of community development ideas in Colonial Office practice will chiefly be illustrated through instructional films. Those which illustrate the argument are a striking example of community development in action because they are a visual medium in a visual age; they were seen as having a pivotal role in mass education schemes; they illustrate through their topics and scenarios what were seen as the hot development issues of the day; they capture the flavour of the period; and because they are a concrete illustration of the continuity of community development schemes in Africa in the colonial and post-colonial eras.Document Type: Research article
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9515.2004.00399.x
Publication date: 2004-08-01
- In this: publication
- By this: publisher
- In this Subject: Social & Public Welfare , Social Science (General)
- By this author: Rosaleen Smyth
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