Majid Rahnema

Majid Rahnema (1924 – 14 April 2015) was a diplomat and former Minister of Iran, born in Tehran. He represented Iran at the UN from 1957 to 1971. He works on problems of poverty and production processes of poverty by the market economy.

Biography

Long ambassador, he represented Iran at the UN for twelve successive sessions of 1957 to 1971. He was Commissioner of the United Nations in Rwanda and Burundi in 1959, for elections and the referendum that led these countries to independence. He also served on the University Council of the United Nations from 1974 to 1978, and also resident representative of the United Nations in Mali [1].

Between 1967 and 1971 he was Minister of Science and Higher Education in Iran under the Shah. In 1971, he created an Institute for Studies of Endogenous Development, inspired by the educational ideas of Paulo Freire, to begin a development project basis with the farmers of Lorestan [2].

After his retirement in 1985 he taught at the University of California at Berkeley for six years, then, from 1993, to Claremont Pitzer Colleges. He then settled in France, where he teaches at the American University of Paris [3].

His many diplomatic activities in the third world led him to reflect on the development, particularly on poverty. He comes to distinguish the "poverty" (lifestyle based on moderation, which may be voluntary cf. Voluntary simplicity) of the "misery" (lack of access to livelihood). The reflection of twenty years will lead to the publication of his book When poverty forces Poverty (2003). In this book, the author summarizes his approach:

The spread of widespread misery and poverty is a social scandal obviously unacceptable, especially in companies perfectly capable of avoiding it. And the visceral rebellion it provokes in us is quite understandable and justified. But this is not by increasing the machine power to create goods and hardware products that this scandal will end, because the machine put into operation this effect is the same one that consistently produces misery.

'He is now trying to understand the many reasons and causes of scandal. It is this research that brings me now to show how a radical transformation of our lifestyle, including a reinvention of the chosen poverty, has now become the sine qua non of any serious struggle against new forms of production misery.'

A friend of Ivan Illich, he participated in his reflections on development. [4] He died on 14 April 2015.[1]

Works

co-written with Edgar Faure etc.
co-written with Gilbert Rist and Gustavo Esteva.

External links

See also

Notes and references

  1. ↑ http://www.actes-sud.fr/actualites/disparition-de-majid-rahnema

1. ↑ Voir entretien de l'auteur avec Catherine Portevin, in Télérama n° 2785 du 28 mai 2003, page 24. ↑ See interview with author Catherine Portevin, in Telerama No. 2785 of May 28, 2003, page 24. 2. ↑ Voir entretien de l'auteur avec Jérôme-Alexandre Nielsberg in L'humanité du 4 juin 2003 [archive] . ↑ See interview with author Jerome Alexander Nielsberg in the humanity of June 4, 2003. [archive] 3. ↑ Voir Quand la misère chasse la pauvreté, éd. ↑ See When poverty forces poverty, ed. Fayard/Actes Sud, 2003, présentation de l'auteur. Fayard / Actes Sud, 2003, presentation by the author. 4. ↑ Voir notamment leur entretien en anglais in The Post-Development Reader, Zed Books, 1997. ↑ See especially their interview in English in The Post-Development Reader, Zed Books, 1997.

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