Iranian thinker
Majid Rahnema
Majid RahnemaPost-development Theory and Critique of DevelopmentIranian1924–2015
"The spread of misery and poverty is a manifest and unacceptable social scandal, especially in societies capable of avoiding it."
Life and Thought
Majid Rahnema (1924–2015) was an Iranian diplomat, politician, and scholar, and a leading theorist of the critique of development and post-development thought. Having served as Iran’s Minister of Science and Higher Education and as a member of UNESCO’s Executive Board, he devoted much of his intellectual work to rethinking poverty, development, and participation, with particular emphasis on the distinction between “poverty” and “misery.”