“An island of the Third World”?: decolonization, solidarity and the critique of development during the long Sixties at the Institut Africain de Genève

This paper examines the transformations at the Institut Africain de Genève (IAG; later Institut universitaire d’études du développement, IUED) during the long 1960s, juxtaposing the tenures of its first two directors, Henri-Philippe Junod (1961–1962) and Pierre Bungener (1962–1975). Transcending its founding premises, IAG became more than a training facility for government officials; it evolved into a site of critique and experimentation. The article explores how engagement with the concept of the Third World led to a critique of Eurocentric development models. Internationalist in outlook, these critiques framed struggles in the Third World as intimately linked to exploitative economic and asymmetrical political structures benefiting the West.