Global Partnerships and Neocolonialism

This open access book points at some of the problematic aspects of international partnerships that continue to be shaped by colonialism.

A “global partnership for sustainable development” is the 17th of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, research points to shortcomings and problematic aspects of international partnerships that have been shaped by colonialism and continue to reflect unequal power relations between the global North and South. Hence, the chapters of this edited volume explore how global partnerships can be established in a neocolonial environment in the fields of development cooperation, the global economy and knowledge production. The contributions were written by members of the Global Partnership Network (GPN), one of the Centres of Excellence for Exchange and Development funded by the German Ministry for Development Cooperation, which has been working intensively and critically on the topic of partnerships and North-South relations over the past four years.

Chapter 1.- Introduction: Global Partnerships and Neocolonialism.- Chapter 2 Prospects of Solidarity in the Era of Neocolonialism.- Chapter 3Partnership Instead of Colonialism? The Origins and Colonial Elements of Development Cooperation.- Chapter 4 International “Development” Cooperation and Social Change from Below. Challenges to the Viability of a Social and Solidarity Economy in Haiti 2010-2020.- Chapter 5 Neocolonialism Facilitated by the World Bank? A Case Study of the World Bank’s Involvement in the Development of Guyana’s Oil and Gas Sector.- Chapter 6 Global Energy Partnerships. Green Colonialism and an Ecological New International Economic Order.- Chapter 7 Transcending Imperialist/Sub Imperialist Partnerships.- Chapter 8 Fairtrade Certification of Commercial Farms: The Case of South African Wine Farms.- Chapter 9. From Colonial Nursing to an Imperial Mode of Reproduction.- Chapter 10 Knowledge Production for “Development” – Challenges and Pitfalls of Decolonization.- Chapter 11 Recognizing Complicity and our Unwillingness (and Inability) to do so.- Chapter 12  In Search of a Democratic Eco-Socialist Politics.

Aram Ziai is Chair of Development and Postcolonial Studies at the University of Kassel and Executive Director of the Global Partnership Network (GPN).

Praveen Jha is Professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Jule Lümmen is Student of Global Political Economy and Development and Student Assistant at the Global Partnership Network (GPN).