Colonialism and Human Rights, A Contradiction in Terms? The Case of France and West Africa, 1895-1914

Conklin, Alice L.

doi:10.2307/2649774

Cited by 61 publications

(22 citation statements)

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“…For a discussion, see e.g. Conklin (1998), Duara (2004), Pomeranz (2005), Schulte (2013a and2013b), and the edited volume by Watt and Mann (2011). 9.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

(Dis)Empowering technologies: ICT for education (ICT4E) in China, past and present

Schulte

2015

Chinese Journal of Communication

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Information and communication technologies (ICT) are often presented as the cure-all for various problems: ICTs for education (ICT4E) are considered promising tools for promoting self-directed, creative learning and bridging various divides, such as those between developed and developing countries, urban and rural regions, and so on. While the lofty goals of ICT4E are continuously being highlighted, surprisingly little attention has been paid to how these technologies are embedded in sociocultural and political environments.China is no exception to this narrative of techno-determinism. In China, new technologies are being widely propagated as effective instruments for erasing differences between learners and learning communities, particularly with regard to transplanting "modern" education into rural communities. The novelty of 21st century ICT, however, tends to obscure the fact that these techno-optimist beliefs date back to attempts in the early 20th century to uplift rural China through the implementation of modern technologies. The article will scrutinize this history of techno-optimism and will relate it to recent attempts at "transformation by technology." Finally, I will discuss how the new keyword in both educational modernization and the knowledge economy-"creativity"-functions as the conceptual ideological heir to "production capacity," the core ingredient of the industrializing societies of the 19th and 20th centuries.Keywords: ICT4E; techno-determinism; techno-optimism; creativity; rural China IntroductionIn the field of education, information and communication technologies (ICT) are often presented as the cure-all for a variety of problems: on the one hand, ICTs for education (ICT4E) are considered appropriate and promising tools for promoting self-directed and creative learning, which are deemed crucial for education in the 21st century. On the other hand, these new technologies are expected to bridge various divides, such as those between developed and developing countries, urban and rural regions, affluent and poor neighborhoods, and so on, by spreading the most up-to-date knowledge and skills to every classroom on the globe. While the merits and lofty goals of ICT4E are continuously highlighted in the research on ICT4E, surprisingly little attention has been paid to how these technologies are embedded in sociocultural and political environments after they are designed in national contexts and implemented in local schools. In a manner that can be best described as both ahistorical and apolitical, both ICT4E practitioners and policy makers assume that the newly promoted technologies, by virtue of their novelty, will automatically transform and improve learning both in and outside the classroom.China is no exception to this narrative of techno-determinism. New technologies are being widely propagated as effective instruments to both erase differences between learners and learning communities and raise learning behaviors and outcomes to a new level of quality. This has been true particularly with r...

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“…For a discussion, see e.g. Conklin (1998), Duara (2004), Pomeranz (2005), Schulte (2013a and2013b), and the edited volume by Watt and Mann (2011). 9.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

(Dis)Empowering technologies: ICT for education (ICT4E) in China, past and present

Schulte

2015

Chinese Journal of Communication

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“…This new universalism based on politics of compassion could be perceived as the cynical perpetuation of colonial and postcolonial policies, but this would be to neglect how much colonialism and human rights have been intermeshed over the past 200 years. 58 Kouchner summed up his perspective in a few militant paragraphs: le vrai colonialisme est dans les têtes de ces blancs qui s'imaginent capable de juger acceptable les maux des autres, qu'ils ne tolèreraient pas dans leurs familles … non assistance à personne en danger il s'agit d'une conduite criminelle qu'adoptent bien souvent les adversaires de l'ingérence, droite et gauche extrêmes souvent curieusement mélées. 59 On the other side of the political fence, Emmanuelli could only denounce in vain the 'détournement de notoriété à des fins politiques, [d']une piraterie cachée, qui hypothèque notre liberté d'action en attribuant à l'initiative de la France ce qui est une dynamique humanitaire à la fois universelle et privée'.…”

Section: Resultsunclassified

Reinventing (French) universalism: religion, humanitarianism and the ‘French doctors’

Taithe

2004

Modern & Contemporary France

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Since the Biafran War, the Médecins sans frontières (MSF) and Médecins du Monde (MDM) movements have become the incarnation of modern Frenchinternationalism and universalism. These organisations have had a chequered and conflictual history. From the late 1970s the movements became increasingly associated with media developments, while its main protagonists became absorbed into politics. The Île-de-Lumière ship for Vietnam signalled a crucial turning point in the use of the media and in allying with traditional intellectual forces, while crises elsewhere in the early 1990s led to increased self-reflexivity. Using the key texts of this phase, this article analyses how these movements looked back at the 1930s, and how two traditions of French humanitarianism found an echo among French doctors, the first being the religious movements representing a Catholic tradition of humanitarianism, the second being the secular post-revolutionary tradition. Reconciling both traditions in humanitarian interventions, the 'French doctors' have developed a new universalism that transcends the right-left divide.

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“…On a more subtle level, their rule rested on a set of coercive practices that violated their own democratic values. 21 One way to clarify the first part of my inquiry is by asking whether Conklin's historical depictions do indeed illustrate a fundamental paradox, as she claims, or whether the colonization projects carried out by these democracies were part of the very exclusionary logic of modern and ancient democracy. We can say, with considerable confidence, that democracies were always invested in violent exclusionary practices deployed to limit and stabilize the people.…”

Section: The Historical Contextmentioning

confidence: 97%

Democracy and Colonialism

Gordon¹

2010

tae

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Colonialism and Human Rights, A Contradiction in Terms? The Case of France and West Africa, 1895-1914

Cited by 61 publications

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(Dis)Empowering technologies: ICT for education (ICT4E) in China, past and present

(Dis)Empowering technologies: ICT for education (ICT4E) in China, past and present

Reinventing (French) universalism: religion, humanitarianism and the ‘French doctors’

Democracy and Colonialism

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