In Elke’s latest essay she problematizes the (Education for) Sustainable Development discourse which is widely adopted in an uncritical manner, despite its roots in imperialism and growth-centred economics. She traces back the dark foundations of the (sustainable) development discourse by going back to 1961, when John F Kennedy declared the 1960s the ‘decade of development’. She makes connections with the independence movements on the African continent in those same years, in particular the events in the Democratic Republic of Congo, former colony of Belgium, where she was born. The 2024 documentary film ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’ is a hook for the whole article.
Punk Ethnography 