Honors Theses
Advisor
Simanti Dasgupta
Department
International Studies and Human Rights Studies
Publication Date
Spring 4-2015
Document Type
Honors Thesis
Abstract
This project focuses specifically on the neo-liberal economic iteration of international development. Neo-liberalism is the idea that the deregulation of the private sector and expansion of free trade will lead to growth in undeveloped countries, which will effectively end poverty and increase the standard of living. My ethnography in Southwest Cameroon, however, shows that the experience and embodiment of development takes on a new understanding at the local, daily level. Exploring the paradox of cocoa and chocolate in Cameroon, I find that while the average Cameroonian is able to grow cocoa, he/she is unable to afford chocolate. This context calls for a critiquing of the assumptions which undergird the development paradigm in order to understand how and why it so often fails, as well to reconcile development with the local understandings and needs in the Global South, generally, and Southwest Cameroon, specifically.
Permission Statement
This item is protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code) and may only be used for noncommercial, educational, and scholarly purposes.
Keywords
Undergraduate research
Disciplines
African Studies | International and Area Studies | Social and Behavioral Sciences
eCommons Citation
VanHook, Chelsea, "Cocoa and Chocolate: Deconstructing the Development Paradigm in Cameroon" (2015). Honors Theses. 53.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/uhp_theses/53
