Interview: Walter Schicho by Christoph Walter Schicho is professor for African Studies and he is co-founder and project manager of the popular course Development Studies at the University of Vienna where the do-gooders of the future are made. For a professor he is kind of a relaxed person, a rarity when you consider the hectic campus life. While you are reading this interview, he is probably grading test papers. But despite his busy schedule he gave us a few minutes to talk about his life and his work.   V: Is it something you always wanted to be - a university lecturer? Schicho: No, I just…it happened. I had a job with the United Nations in Ghana and then they (the University of Vienna) asked me to start as an assistant professor in 1971/72. I decided to stay in Vienna. V: So the United Nations was not interesting for you any more? Schicho: It was an interesting job but only for two years and finally I decided to take the other chance offered. V: What is your motivation? Why Development Studies? Was there a life changing experience in your past? Schicho: No, no. In the 1970s we restarted African Studies in Vienna and it became a kind of…  we followed the example of area studies in Great Britain and France combining linguistics, literature and history and focussed both on theoretical and applied African studies. Most of the students were rather interested in applied African Studies than in the theoretical aspects. V: Development Studies are quite new in Austria, aren’t they? Schicho: As a studies programme it is new and it only started in the late 1990s but the subject had sparked interest much earlier; students of the University of Vienna organised a summer school in Development Studies already in 1971. Since then there were always courses provided at different Austrian universities. Development Studies gained importance in the 1990s when we were trying to convince the authorities of the University of Vienna to found a school for Development Studies but we didn’t succeed. In the end it was just a studies programme and not an institute which came up. V: And 2002/03 was… Schicho: We started in 1997 with Development Studies as a minor subject and in 2002 with the main course for undergraduates. V: And how many students enrolled for the main course at the beginning. Schicho: We started with 150. In the following years, year by year, we got between 400 and 500 new students V: How do you explain the increasing interest for Development Studies? Schicho: On the one hand it is kind of a fashionable subject; on the other hand Vienna offers the only opportunity for undergraduates to do Development Studies in German-speaking Europe. Other universities offer only post graduate courses in Development Studies. That’s why students from Germany and other neighbouring countries come to Vienna. V: Which means it is unique in Austria or in whole Europe? Schicho: As an under-graduate programme it is unique in Austria and the neighbourhoods. V: Can you tell us something about the content of these studies? What are you trying to teach your students? Schicho: We try to provide what is usually called a trans-disciplinary or cross-disciplinary programme. I don’t know if we are really successful but we try to make more out of the usual areas as there are Development Studies in sociology and in political science, economics, history or geography, which are usually the disciplines where you may find Development Studies integrated in the curriculum. We try to bring these four or five disciplines together to get a new type ... an inter-disciplinary approach to development. You may find the same tendency in new curricula of other universities: a new type of Development Studies not based on economics or not primarily based on economics. V: Why hasn't anything like this existed for such a long time? Why is it now so fashionable? Schicho: It is always difficult to create a new discipline out of existing ones; usually you get new disciplines, which are very near to the mother discipline. As for instance history: there are manifold infant disciplines like social history or economic history; all of them are very near to history. But to create a completely new discipline ... kind of a new brand of discipline, is much more difficult. V: What do you try to teach your students - to think critically or to be open-minded? Schicho: Teaching means to prepare students for a critical position. That is our main target. But teaching an academic discipline also means to contribute to changes in society not only in Development Studies but in general and most of us are not just interested in critical awareness but feel also fundamentally responsible to society, our own, and others. V: What are the common prejudices among your students when it comes to international development or development studies? Do they think: "When I graduate I will go to Africa and feed an African baby?" Are people sometimes so naive? Schicho: There are some students who start and think they can really change the society in an easy way. We have to help them to change attitude. If you want to contribute to development, to bring social or economic change you have to do it first in your own society and then in a global way. Not just focusing on target societies somewhere in the South. V: What job perspectives do students have after graduating? Schicho: In the end it depends on the student, of course. Job possibilities are manifold; it depends on your own capacity and they way you organise your studies. Our graduates may work in the aid business or international organisations, with civil society organisations dealing with migrants or conflict prevention or in research or planning. V: Can you recommend some books for newcomers who want to get an overview about the problems of developing countries? Schicho: I would recommend two books, which were published recently. A Radical History of Development Studies by Uma Kothari and Inclusive Aid by Leslie Groves. Both books combine a critical view on processes and institutions with a rather optimistic insight. The authors are professionals and have been working in the field for 20-30 years. V: Isn’t it frustrating to know that the world cares more about Britney Spears and her problems than third world problems? And how do you think can public awareness be raised? Schicho: The bigger the distance between me and another subject or a person in a geographical way, the weaker the interest for it or her or him. I think nobody can force public opinion to change that attitude. Maybe the most important way to influence the opinion about problems of people in other countries is to convince our public or make people aware that we live in a global society and what happens anywhere in the world is very important for us too. V: Hollywood stars like Angelina Jolie or Pamela Anderson try to raise attention for these problems. What do you think about celebrities or public figures? Do they reinforce prejudices or do they really help to wake people up? Schicho: In Austria and Germany the most impressive prominent person is Karl Heinz Boehm. He became aware that he could do something for misery-stricken people in Africa and he does it very efficiently. Those famous people may contribute to the solution; they may also contribute to make the problems bigger. It depends on what they do and how they do it. What they can do and what they do anyway is, to raise awareness and interest in public. I am not sure if collecting money and launching projects is really the way to contribute to development. But in raising awareness they have their role to play. And some of them are not only doing it because they are good people and want to help somebody else; they also do it for their own self. V: The development sector is very self-critical. Donating money for charities and aid doesn’t always help. It makes the problems even worse. It seems that everybody has a solution and every solution they offer is wrong. Schicho: I think there is just a small sector in our development business where you may find critical approaches. Let’s say 90% of those working in development and aid business have to make their plans, follow their plans and they have to be optimistic when it comes to their work. So I think the self-critical sector is very small. But it’s true; you always need a critical minority to control business and show up alternative ways of doing. V: What are your weak spots, what would you criticise about you? Schicho: I always worked in a multidisciplinary way. I never became a specialist in a well defined field or on a single subject. I usually hopped from one subject to another, from one discipline to another. V: How do you think can development problems been solved? Can the North “rescue” the South? Schicho: In theory it is quite clear and most people agree that development essentially means “to grow, to develop yourself”. I think most of the theoreticians and politicians agree! But they don’t act in that sense. As long as we identify development with development aid, development politics and so on, as long as we do it in a way, that there is somebody who develops somebody else, we won’t achieve our goals. In theory it is much easier but in practise it’s very difficult because there is always asymmetry between those who have and those who have not. And those who are supposed to “be developed” are always the weaker part because they don’t control money, technology and information. They just get it from outside. It’s almost impossible to develop yourself if you don’t control the resources.

 

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