Social Science as Imperialism

Claude Ake’s study is primarily concerned with what he terms ‘the most pernicious form of imperialism’ namely scientific knowledge. Ake analyses how Western social sciences, whether consciously or inadvertently, foist capitalist values and capitalist development on the Third World, and serve imperialist ends. He unravels the theory of political development/’westernisation’, exposing its ideological character and condemning ‘Western development studies as worse than useless’. He then develops his analysis of the imperialist and ideological characteristics of Western social sciences to posit alternatives which may more successfully overcome permanent underdevelopment; and advocates a struggle for a new model of social sciences which is socialist-orientated, and that developing countries reject Western models.

The study was first published in 1979, revised in 1982, is newly reissued, and for the first time, widely available outside Africa.