Hybrid Identities of Development Studies in Tanzania

Abstract

This article addresses identities, hierarchies of knowledge and power relations in academia in postcolonial settings, in the context of development studies in Tanzania. Based on literatures on organizational identity and postcolonial hybridity, it establishes a conceptual lens of hybrid identity, scrutinizing how the identity of the discipline of development studies is constructed. Based on analysis of interviews with staff in development studies, we identify four relationships where differences and asymmetries were articulated: with other disciplines, with past development studies, with global theorizing on development, and with partners in the global North. We conclude in discussing how acknowledging multiple relationships and ambivalent knowledge hierarchies can make room for hybrid identities that can produce new ways of producing knowledge in development studies.