Horizontal Development: Shifting Power and Privilege in Aid

Accessible and comprehensive, this book puts forth an innovative perspective on international aid, going beyond top-down attempts to centre local voices and practices.

By providing an overview of newer iterations and overlooked practices in development, including citizen aid, technologies for development, and faith-based humanitarianism, the book explores the extent to which they disrupt existing models and potentially lead to more equitable grassroots-led approaches. The authors develop the concept of ’horizontal development’ to examine how power and privilege operate in international and local horizontal development spaces. Examining challenges, they also highlight opportunities for doing things differently in light of prominent calls for decolonising aid and development.

Shonali Banerjee is Research Associate at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge. Anne-Meike Fechter is Reader in Anthropology at the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex. Thabani Mutambasere is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the School of Geography at Queen Mary University of London and School Tutor within the International Development School at the University of Sussex, UK.