Racism in Development and Development Cooperation
- Tomáš Profant
Abstract
Development cooperation or aid is often perceived as a form of charity or a
good deed that is being carried out only with the best intentions. Racism,
on the other hand, is most often connected with right wing extremism
(even though in Slovakia it is connected also with the wider political center).
The basic assumption of this theoretical article is the opposite. One can find
racism also in development and development cooperation. The article tries
to answer the following question: What are the main forms of racism in
development and development cooperation? On the basis of the extant and
my own research the article categorizes the forms of racism in development
and development cooperation and identifies the three main ones:
development discourse, structural racism connected with the racially
di!erentiated global capitalist system and an everyday racism connected
with racially biased institutions. The conclusion poses a question regarding
the way one may fight these forms of racism and briefly answers it.
Keywords
racism, development, development coperation, discourse, everydayness
Author Biography
Tomáš Profant
Tomáš Profant, PhD, studied Political Science, International Relations and
European Studies at Masaryk University in Brno and finished his PhD at the
University of Kassel. He is a research fellow at the Institute of International
Relations in Prague and a lecturer at the Institute of European Studies and
International Relations at the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences,
Comenius University in Bratislava. His research interests include
international political economy, North-South relations, post-development
and postcolonial theory, and critical discourse analysis. He is the author of
New Donors on the Postcolonial Crossroads: Eastern Europe and Western
Aid.